A Charmed Story 10: An Elder's Tale
by crazyDFFgang
Summary: Take a couple of spoonfulls of knights and kings and add two pieces of magic. Then mix it all, and top it with Chris and his best friend. Afterwards, enjoy your Medieval Special! !COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

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* * *

**A Charmed Story - Part Ten:  
An Elder's Tale  
Chapter 1**

"It is kinda of weird taking mini-me for a walk..." The day was a bit cloudy, but still warm, since it was mid-October. Chris was pushing the little pram slowly, as he took delight of the warm breeze that caressed his tanned skin.  
Michael laughed at his remark: "Man, I thought he did not like... or he won't like, to be called 'mini-you'..."  
Chris burst into laughter, as images of Christopher came to his mind, repeating once and again that he was another person. "Yeah, but he does not understand me now, so I can call him that way..."  
Angela, Micheal and Bianca laughed too. But despite the jokes, all of them were used to see that little baby and their adult Chris as completely separate and different people; especially thanks to the visit that Christopher had granted them some months before. Still... if they wouldn't tease him from time to time, he would never become that neurotic about that little fact, like he was... And Chris enjoyed that 'mini-me'-game.  
Bianca was pushing Hope's pram, while she observed how the two babies slept quietly. It was a blessing to see those babies so happy and calm when they were with their family. "This place is so peaceful..." Bianca said, submerged in her thoughts.  
"We used to come here long ago," Angela explained. Then she turned to Michael, who nodded.  
"Really looong ago... But it was amazing to discover that it was still the same, as if no one had ever come here, since then," he said.  
"It's like a little natural sanctuary," Chris stated, contemplating ecstatic the nature that surrounded them. The little spring among the trees and bushes, and the singing birds, the squirrels... The whole forest.  
"That's why we loved it so much..." Angela sighed, supporting herself on Michael's arm, dreamy. "He declared his love for me here," she said, making him blush.  
"Hey... Don't talk about it, please..."  
Chris and Bianca exchanged amused looks and grinned. "You know everything about us now... We also deserve to know your secrets," Chris teased.  
Michael blushed even more and shook his head. "It was stupid."  
"It was romantic!" Angela exclaimed, as if she were angry. "He said he was like my knight, and I was his dame... And he told me he'd profess me eternal love... He even gave me a token, this medal..." She took a little medal that hung on her neck.  
"Stop it, honey. That's so out of fashion now..." Michael insisted.  
But Bianca was already looking closely at the medal: "It's beautiful... Do you know what it is??"  
Angela frowned: "I am not sure... I mean, I don't know what it means. It's like a flower."  
"They told me it was the symbol of some family in Europe... Britain, perhaps. Some old lineage," Michael explained. Then he shrugged: "It does not matter anymore. It was just a game..."  
Chris smiled: "You were really original..."  
They all laughed, as they went on walking. They were approaching the camp where they had everything.  
"Do you think we should start packing all this? It's getting darker..." Bianca suggested as they arrived and looked at the sky. "I don't like forests at night..." she felt a little shiver, and Chris hugged her tightly. They all knew why.  
Angela had the same feeling, but when she was going to give her opinion, Michael said: "Hey... Where is my stuff?? I thought I had left it here..."  
All the heads turned to him, confused. "What do you mean??" Chris asked.  
Michael was now putting everything in his backpack upside down, very nervously. "Shoot, I guess I took it with me... And forgot it somewhere. Probably when I took out the sandwiches, it was on them... I had to take it out before."  
"What are you talking about, honey?" Angela asked, looking at him worried.  
"My camera! I lost it!!"  
Bianca looked at Chris, worried. She did not want at all to lose time there...  
But Chris shrugged, and said: "Ok, let's go back, you and I, and look for that... Bianca, you can go home with Angy and the babies. We'll be there as soon as we find it."  
The two women sighed. "We are not gonna leave without you," Angela said.  
Bianca nodded "Just don't take ages! And remember you have someone else to visit today, Chris."  
The two men nodded. "If it gets darker, we'll orb back here and then back home. Don't worry..." Chris said as they started to walk away.  
The two women looked at each other and sat down, tired. It was a beautiful place, but they did not like it at all if the sun disappeared... The babies were still sleeping. It was great that Cole and Phoebe had decided to take Wyatt to a theme park. That way it was easier for them to handle two little children, and Leo and Piper had got their day off.

°°°°°°°°°°

Meanwhile, Chris and Michael walked fast among the trees.  
"Was it this way??"  
"No, it was this one. "  
"I am not sure, I don't remember that tree..."  
"Come on, Chris, all the trees are the same! And you can orb, don't worry about getting lost."  
Chris shrugged and went on walking. They walked for a long time, more than they thought, and it was darker now. Chris stopped to tell Michael that they could actually buy a new camera, but it was better to go back, when an arrow passed whistling by his head and got stuck in the tree.  
Chris turned quickly and threw the attacker telekinetically through the air, fearing that it was a darklighter...  
"Oh, Gosh!" Michael exclaimed, when he turned to see where the arrow had come from. His eyes opened widely, in surprise. In front of them was lying a horse and a man in an armor, wearing a black cloak with some golden drawings on it. By his side, there was a sword. The man was trying to get on his feet again, but the armor was too heavy. The horse stood on its four legs finally, after several attempts.  
"What the...?" Chris couldn't believe his eyes.  
Suddenly he felt Michael's hand, grabbing his arm: "Let's orb. This man must be crazy..."  
"Or it could be a demon," Chris suggested, starting to orb. However, he felt that his blood froze in his veins when nothing happened. "I can't."  
"WHAT?!?!?!?" Michael turned pale. "What do you mean you CAN'T?!?!?" He looked at the man on the ground, who had finally sat and grabbed his sword.  
"To me!!" He cried with a strong voice. "Sorcerers!! Witches!!!"  
Chris felt his hand trembling. That was not good at all. He tried to orb again, but it did not work, so he pressed Michael's hand and said: "Run."  
They started to run away from the man, when the sound of galloping horses reached their ears.  
"RUN!!" Chris cried again, pulling from Michael's arm. The horses approached noisily, and some weird words which sounded like English but were incomprehensible for them were repeated all the time.  
Michael tripped a couple of times, as well as Chris, but they got soon to their feet and kept running. The voices approached fast. Chris tried again to orb with no result... Another arrow almost grazed Michael, who ducked just in time. They ran and ran, moving the branches of the trees and feeling their scratches on their arms.  
"What is this??" Michael asked, scared, but suddenly something made them stop abruptly.  
A sword in Chris's neck. The Elder looked up, just to meet the eyes - and only the eyes because the man was wearing a helmet - of a very furious knight, or whatever it was.  
"Who art thou and from where cometh thou?"  
Chris swallowed feeling Michael trembling by his side. What was going on?? What kind of joke was that? He did not dare to move, but could hear the sound of the other horses that were chasing them, stop at their backs. They were surrounded. He tried to orb once again, but nothing happened. Why had he been able to use his other powers but could not orb??  
"Speakth now, sorcerer!"

°°°°°°°°°°

"Leo... LEO!" Jeremiah called for him as he walked down the long hallway, avoiding the other Elders, who crossed his path, but still bumping into a few of them..  
Leo first didn't react. He was busy, he was in a hurry to get things done so that he could go home to his wife again. Piper had been angry enough that he had to leave her today, even if it was just for a little while, really...  
But his colleague kept calling so Leo finally turned around with a sigh: "Jeremiah... How are you?"  
The other Elder seemed a little out of breath when he reached his fellow. "Can you explain to me... what your son wants to do... with those plants... he brought up here...???" he said breathing a little too fast, while he pointed at a few boxes with huge bottled plants.  
Leo shrugged: "I guess he wants to bring a little more life up here..."  
"And who shall take care of that?" the other one asked again. He looked a little annoyed about that...  
Leo smiled: "Well... I think... why don't you do that?" Then he winked at his fellow, patted his shoulder and went on, leaving Jeremiah kind of shocked.  
He couldn't help smiling about that Elder, while he went on. Jeremiah was a good and clever man, but sometimes he was just... Anyway, Leo felt a lot of pride for his son. The fact that his son was promoted in that kind of way was a huge honor. And he really liked his son's ideas... 'Plants in the upper world... that's great!'  
But Leo didn't get far when another Elder crossed his way, actually the one he was looking for. "Good evening Elenia, I was actually searching for you," he greeted.  
"Hello Leo..." the woman looked kind of nervous, "did you talk to the others?"  
Leo sighed: "I did... but they don't agree... I don't know, you should talk to Odin again. And if he has no better idea, you should just go without permission."  
"But..."  
"Well... what shall they do? They won't kill you just because you visit your son..." Elenia nodded with a sigh. "Don't worry, we'll find a way," Leo added with a reassuring smile. Then he excused himself and returned to his wife.

°°°°°°°°°°

Wyatt was on a little marry-go-round, he was riding a horse while Phoebe and Cole stood a little aside, watching him.  
Then the empath looked to the sky: "It's getting dark... is it already that late?"  
Cole looked at his watch: "It is... God, time flies when you have fun..." Phoebe nodded. Then she hugged her husband and gave him a kiss on his cheek.  
"What was that for?" Cole asked looking at her, a smile on his lips.  
Phoebe looked back at him seriously: "That was for the fact that you're here now, back in my life for more then a year... And that you made it so much more complete."  
Cole smiled embarrassed: "Thanks... well... you made my life worth living." Now Phoebe smiled and Cole kissed her softly.  
Then they turned to watch Wyatt again. He giggled happily hugging the horse and waving to his aunt and uncle every time he saw them. Phoebe and Cole waved back smiling. They both enjoyed that day with the boy.  
"I really want something like that on my own," Cole said then.  
Phoebe grinned: "I would prefer a girl."  
Her husband laughed: "Well, I don't care... every child of you and me would be just perfect." The empath giggled and turned again to the smiling Wyatt on his horse.  
But after another turn something was wrong. Phoebe could feel it even before she saw it. When Wyatt appeared again he was crying.  
"What...?" Phoebe exclaimed. But Cole already jumped over and entered the driving marry-go-round to take the boy.  
The owner of that old 'horse-ride' got a little angry, but Cole didn't care. He jumped off the marry-go-round and went over to his wife, with the crying boy on his arms.  
"What happened?" Phoebe asked.  
Cole looked a little desperate: "I don't know."  
"Chris away..." Wyatt sobbed, "can't feel Chris..."  
Phoebe and Cole exchanged a look of sorrow and fear. "Ok," he said, "let's go home..."

°°°°°°°°°°

"Chris!!! Mike!!!" Angela and Bianca were crying their names desperately. It was dark, and they had not come back.  
"Chris, move your butt right back or I'll myself find you and kill you with my own hands!!!" Bianca was freaking out, and this made her behave in such a way, but this was not helping Angela at all. The girl was pale as the snow.  
She finally took Bianca's hand: "Do you think that some demon found them?... Rhashirk??"  
Bianca shook her head energetically: "He's dead. And I don't think it's that easy to get Chris, believe me. CHRIS! DAMN IT!" Bianca didn't believe her own words, but had tried to reassure Angela, who again pressed her hand making her stop crying.  
"Let's go home. Do those things you usually do to find people. But let's go. If there's something wrong here... The babies..."  
Bianca turned to look at the two little children who were now crying scared, and nodded. She was right. Panicking, the only thing she got was scaring Angela and the babies. She swallowed and looked back once again, with the hope that Chris would appear with Michael in the middle of his bluish orbs. But nothing happened...  
Then she just went to the babies, and put her hands on the prams. "Take my arm," she said to Angela who obeyed immediately. After that, they shimmered together back to the manor.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Michael were sitting on the cold, wet and dirty floor of a dungeon where the dim light came through a tiny window protected by thick rusty metal bars. The door was made of iron or something similar. It had a little trap door at the bottom, through where food was supposed to be deposited for the prisoners. Inside, the only thing they had was a filthy glass containing dirtier water. They had spend the last night there.  
Chris leant against the stony wall, with his legs bent and hugged by his arms. He was resting his head on his elbows, feeling frustrated and lost. Michael was by his side, in the tiny cell, his legs stretched on the floor. He sighed, resigned, and Chris raised his head.  
"I should have used my powers..."  
"He was pointing at you with that sword!"  
"And what??"  
"What??" Michael was pretty angry. Against himself, against the situation, against those weird people and whatever the hell was going on. "You were not able to orb!! You are not able to do it, yet, dammit!! What if the other powers did not work either? They already believe we are witches or whatever they called us!"  
Chris shook his head, and smiled. Then he started to laugh: "This doesn't make sense at all!"  
Michael looked at him shocked: "What?? And now you laugh... Can you please think of a way to go out of this disgusting place? I don't see what is funny about it!"  
Chris shook his head trying to calm down: "I don't know how to escape, Mike. I don't know how we ended up here!!"  
Michael sighed again, frustrated. "Whatever, it's not funny to be surrounded by all these freaks who believe that they are in the Middle Ages and who know that you are a witch."  
Chris looked at him in silence, and then smiled very weakly: "The problem is that, I think, we ARE in the Middle Ages... How we came, or what happened, I don't know... But the weird guys or freaks here are we!!"  
Michael covered his face with his hands, completely overwhelmed: "This is crazy... Just crazy."  
"I know... But just look at the city, and the people, the way they were dressed... And the roads we saw, those sandy paths... And the castle, where we are now!! Have you ever seen a castle in the US, man?? In San Francisco??"  
Michael swallowed, and then closed his eyes. "Punch me and prove me that I am not dreaming and having a terrible nightmare..."  
Chris shook his head again, but when he was going to answer, the door opened making him close his eyes because of the sudden light coming from outside.  
"Cometh here, sorcerer. His Majesty wants to see thee and thy footman or squire."

°°°°°°°°°°

It was already dark, when Phoebe rushed into the manor. Cole, who was carrying a crying Wyatt was right behind her.  
"LEO! PIPER!!! GET YOUR ASSES DOWN HERE!!!" she yelled.  
"Shhhhh, it's ok, you're safe..." Cole tried to calm the boy down, who cried even more since Phoebe's yell.  
Seconds later Leo orbed in - just dressed in boxers. At the same time they heard footsteps on the stairs.  
"What happened?" the Elder asked worried.  
"Oh Baby... Mommy is here..." Piper said soothingly while she, only wrapped into a bathrobe, rushed down the stairs and over to Cole to pick up her boy.  
"We're not sure..." Cole said.  
"Where is Chris?" Phoebe asked to get straight to the point.  
"Chris?" Leo asked confused.  
"He's still out with Bianca, Mike, Angy and the babies..." Piper answered, "why do you ask?"  
"Because..." Cole started, but Phoebe was faster.  
"Wyatt can't feel him anymore!" she said.  
"WHAT?" the parents exclaimed.  
Cole added: "That's why he's crying..."  
"Wyatt sweetie... What happened?" Piper asked looking at her son worried.  
"Chris away," the boy sobbed.  
Leo sighed and moved his hand through his massy hair: "That's not good."  
"Can you sense him?" Phoebe asked. Leo tried but then shook his head. Piper swallowed. That couldn't be, could it...? "And baby-Chris?" she asked then.  
Leo was about to answer when bluish orbing lights filled the room.  
"Odin? What are you doing here?" Leo said.  
The Elder sighed: "Everything is in turmoil up there... We were just discussing that question of the plants, when we felt a shift..."  
"A shift?" Cole asked.  
"A shift of power?" That was Piper.  
Odin shook his head: "No... A shift of time!" When everyone just looked at him wonderingly he added: "That's why I'm here, I'm seeking Chris... Thought he would maybe have an idea what this could be about..."  
At that moment the air waved in front of them as Bianca and Angela shimmered in with the two prams.  
"Piper, we need to scry for Chris, he..." the Phoenix exclaimed while she rose. Then she paused when she saw the scene... their worried faces. "Wait..." she said. "What happened?"

°°°°°°°°°°

"Ok... Ok... Aha... Right... Yes, Mr. Warner... Aha... Alright..."  
Pause.  
Paige rolled her eyes. "Yeah... Ok, I'll talk with him as soon as possible. Alright. Goodbye." With a long sigh, she finally managed to hang up the phone.  
Then she took a paper and a pen, wrote a short note, which she left under the table-calendar, and stood up. "This man will never stop being a pain in the ass..." she grumbled, as she walked through the corridors of the school, after having left Chris's office.  
She was in charge of it that week, while Chris took some short holidays; but she had made him promise that he'd take her place too afterwards. She also wanted to have some free days...  
She smiled. She did not even notice but she was smiling because some images of Kyle had come to her mind.  
"Good night, Paige!" It was Nicki's voice.  
Paige turned to her, noticing suddenly her stupid smile: "Oh, yeah... good night... Are you leaving already??" She asked, stopping to greet the smiley girl.  
"Of course, I have a life outside. It's almost eight, Paige..."  
The Charmed One frowned: "Really? So late??"  
Nicki laughed slightly: "Well, yeah... I guess you really need a watch..." she joked.  
Paige nodded thoughtful. "Ok... " she sighed. "Then see you tomorrow. I'm gonna go too, actually. And this is the last time that I take charge of this place. On my own, at least. You are a witness now, I made a promise."  
Nicki laughed again. Then she said goodbye to her, and left.  
Paige looked at her as she disappeared through a door, and then shook her head. Directing the school was really tiring. How could Chris manage to do it at the same time as he performed his tasks as an Elder, husband, father and son in such a difficult-to-handle family?  
She sighed again and orbed home. Straight to the phone. She had a date that night, a date she would not miss for nothing.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Michael walked behind the knight that had picked them up after being led to the main hall. They had been put into irons, which was kind of annoying, above all because Chris knew that he could get rid of them easily with magic, but Michael was too scared to let him use it there.  
"They think you are a witch. In the Middle Ages... Man, that's like a sentence to death, do not use it, for God's sake..." he had told him as they followed the jailer up to the hall upstairs.  
Chris had sighed. He was right, but if he used magic wisely...  
"Ye speakth not any more!" the jailer had ordered them to shut up, and so they did, although after a few seconds Chris was mumbling something. Michael had looked at him, but he could not hear him well: "What are you saying??"  
Chris had raised his eyes to look at him, but the jailer pushed him harshly. "I told you to shut up!"  
Michael startled but Chris only stumbled a little bit, and then he balanced again. He looked at Michael out of the corner of his eyes, smiling slightly, and his friend understood immediately.  
He wanted to tell him that he was crazy, that if he was free he would kill him with his own hands, what was he thinking by using a spell to understand that old version of English?? Was he nuts?? What had he exactly done? Had he made them talk in modern English? Or had he just made them both understand what he said?  
But the harsh voice of the jailer had interrupted their flow of thoughts once again. They were upstairs, and that tall and elegant knight was waiting for them.  
Now they were walking behind him, again, along the long and narrow corridors of the castle, which resembled more a labyrinth. Finally, they arrived to a huge dark room, full of flags and shields, and with a couple of big thrones, in one of which there was sitting a very young man with a crown on his head, accompanied by a woman, who was sitting on the other throne. Chris and Michael exchanged insecure looks. This was not funny.  
The king gestured with his hand and said: "Thanks, my good friend. Just leave us alone, please. I need to talk with the prisoners privately."  
The knight bowed and left, leaving them alone with the monarchs, who smiled very softly.  
Chris and Michael frowned a little bit, surprised. Their countenances looked so sympathetic and understanding... Not the typical medieval king who would have killed them after the first time they had dare to speak.  
"Nice clothes..." the king said, looking at them intensely, but his eyes smiled, somehow. Chris swallowed and glanced at the queen but returned to the king, without saying a word. "Can we know where you come from??"  
Michael looked at Chris, waiting that he'd answer; but he didn't. He was like frozen! "A far-away place, my Lord... my Lady..."  
The woman also smiled and nodded. Then she approached the king's ear and murmured something. The king nodded too. Then he stood up, went towards them, and they stepped back a little bit. But the king reached Chris's hands and freed him. Then he did the same with Michael.  
"Thanks..." Chris mumbled, looking in the king's eyes, very surprised, as he rubbed his wrists.  
The monarch smiled. "That's why I want to have this key with me. I don't like that people feel so afraid of me. In this city, as you probably know, king and knight, peasant and count, are all the same. That's why you are not kneeling now in front of me," he said, making emphasis on the last part. Chris realised that they should probably have knelt. But it was too late now. "Well, where do you come from, then? Men talk better when they feel free..."  
Chris swallowed again, as he kept his eyes in the king's emerald eyes: "I... we come from some place... We just..."  
"We fell. We knocked our heads, my Lord. And we don't remember anything about us..." Michael explained quickly.  
The king nodded again, and looked at his wife significantly. "And that's how you arrived in Camelot..." he said casually.  
Chris and Michael opened their eyes widely. "CAMELOT!" they exclaimed.

* * *

_(Chapter 1 written by Belén and Chrissy.W.x)_


	2. Chapter 2

**A Charmed Story - Part Ten:  
An Elder's Tale  
Chapter 2**

"Damned!" Steve cursed throwing the letter into the corner of his room.  
"Come on... you knew it would take a while to convince the others..." Tom said trying to stay calm, "especially when they have some trouble up there, like he had said." He sat on a chair and was watching his friend. Steve was kind of annoying lately. But was it a wonder? He had found his mom... he had found out that he was anything else than he had thought he would be... And those stupid Elders up there just ignored him... And now that letter Silas had brought. Tom knew it was from Steve's mom, and from his reactions he could guess that she wouldn't come to his birthday... Steve had so much hoped that she would be there... He hadn't planed to have a big party, he wasn't in the mood for celebrating.  
"I don't understand that, Tom!" Steve suddenly turned to his friend. "I mean... I'm partly one of them... And they don't let me see her, not even on my damned birthday!"  
Tom sighed, and stood up. He went over to his friend and hugged him: "I'm sorry... But there is still some time left of your big day... Maybe Chris and Silas will find a way..."  
Steve just nodded. He was so angry about the Elders... about all of them, except those four who he had started to call friends. But even Odin with his influence wasn't able to convince the others up there... it was hopeless.  
At that moment they heard someone unlocking the front-door of Steve's apartment.  
"Who's that?" Tom asked surprised.  
Steve smiled: "Could only be Nicki..."  
Tom rose his eyebrows: "She's got a key??? Wow... that turns to be r-e-a-l-l-y serious between you, doesn't it?" His friend just grinned.  
Then the door to the living room was opened and the young woman went in. "Oh, hey Tom," she greeted him smiling, while she crossed the room to the kitchen to put down her bags, "Do you stay for dinner?"  
Tom shrugged: "Well... Veronica is still with her parents, so... if you don't mind."  
"Of course not," Steve said, "you're always welcome."  
Tom grinned. But not for the reason Steve thought. No, he grinned about the fact that his best friend had still no idea about the little plan he and Nicki had.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Michael looked at the king astonished, while he chuckled slightly about their behavior. It seemed to King Arthur that they had really no idea where they were, and even if he felt pity for them, he couldn't help chuckling. "Well, I guess you are no threat to me, so I will give order to give you some clothes and food. And then we will..."  
Suddenly, a girl with modern day clothes came orbing in, disturbing that kind of relaxed situation. She winked at Chris and Michael saying: "Hey boys..."  
The king and the queen were shocked by that. First they didn't know what was going on, it happened all too fast. King Arthur was scared for his wife's safety, so he shouted: "Guards!"  
But before the guards were there, the girl had already orbed away again, leaving Chris and Michael in a bad situation.  
They looked at each other frowning. Both couldn't understand why she could orb, but Chris couldn't. And where did she come from anyway?  
The king rose and asked: "What was that? Can you give me some explanation? She seems to know you..." When neither Chris or Michael answered, the king asked again: "What was that?"  
But the friends still didn't answer, they just didn't know what to say. Finally Michael sighed: "I swear to you that we haven't seen her before, never... not once..."  
But the King was confused and angry, but mostly confused. He wasn't sure what to think anymore. So he let the guards take Chris and Michael back to the dungeons. They would stay there, until he would get some explanation.

°°°°°°°°°°

A few minutes later the two friends heard the door of their small prison slammed shut. Then they heard the steps of the jailer disappear in the distance.  
Michael looked at Chris, annoyed: "Oh, great, back at this disgusting place."  
Chris ignored his comment. He had other things in mind. "How is it, that this girl can orb, and you can't?" Michael then asked, his voice frustrated.  
Chris sighed: "At the moment, I don't care, we have bigger things to worry about right now... Like how are we getting out of this place, for example..."  
At that moment, the girl came back, orbing into their dungeon. "Hey again," she said. "I thought I could be a nice girl and get you guys out of here."  
Chris laughed: "No, not until we get an explanation. I wanna know WHO you are and WHAT role you play in this game!?!"  
But suddenly they heard a door opening, it was the main door of the dungeon.  
The girl smiled bitter-sweet: "There's no time for that, I think... Look, you have two choices: Are you coming with me out of this castle, away from this dungeon...? Or are you going to stay here until an explanation is going to fall out of the air? Because the king won't let you go until he hears one... So, what will you do?"  
Michael looked at Chris and shrugged: "I guess she's right, we shouldn't stay here!"  
Chris sighed and nodded. At least he had to save his friend, get him out of there... So he took the girl's hand, same as Michael.  
Just as the orbing lights disappeared, the cell door was opening. The knight cursed, when he was looking at an empty room.

°°°°°°°°°°

"They disappeared!! They just disappeared!" The king was shaking his head as he repeated those words, unable to understand. "I thought I would be able to put some sense in their heads, by keeping them in the dungeons for a while..."  
The knight in front of him said nothing, but the queen approached her husband and caressed his cheek: "My Lord Arthur... You're a great man. But you need to control your anger sometimes. You were doing well, until that girl... Until that portent happened."  
Arthur shook his head once again. "Our people don't like magic. They don't understand... I just needed them to talk, so I could have helped them, Guinevere. So that they could have helped us."  
The queen smiled understanding: "You scared them, that's all. And they used magic to escape again..."  
"Which is going to be a problem for them, and for us." Then Arthur sighed, and turned to the knight: "It's ok, just leave... I want you to find them and bring them back. But don't hurt them." The knight bowed and turned around. "Oh, one more thing... I need to talk with Merlin."  
Guinevere pressed his shoulder tenderly: "You'll see, everything's going to be fine." Arthur tried to smile but his worries at that moment were too big.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Michael rematerialised and quickly separated themselves from the girl.  
"Ok, keep that space between us and you, and tell us right now what is going on," Chris said as soon as he broke free from the girl.  
She laughed sarcastically and looked around: "You don't know where you are?? Maybe in the medieval underworld with medieval demons?? Have you ever thought about something like that?"  
Michael felt a thrill on his back, and looked at Chris, who also seemed to be quite worried: "You orbed, you are a whitelighter." 'A weird one, though', he thought. "This is not the underworld."  
Suddenly, the girl disappeared again in front of their eyes, with an enigmatic smile on her face, and shimmered at their back. "Guess again." she whispered.  
Michael jumped, as well as Chris, who was about to use his powers against her.  
"Don't waste your time and energies, man. I'm with you, believe it or not," she said. "Now, you wanna know where we are. We are in my home. What is going on?? Too much. To start with, guys, do you know by any chance who the king is??"  
Chris and Michael looked at each other, feeling uncomfortable in front of that girl, but then the latter shrugged: "Arthur... But still..."  
"Listen," Chris cut him off. "We just want to go back to our time, plane or whatever. I just wanna orb back because everyone is gonna be very scared, and this does not make sense at all, so if you really wanna help, let us know how to go back."  
The girl sighed and shook her head, resigned: "I'm sorry to tell you, Houston... We've got a problem." Chris stepped towards her, starting to feel impatient. "I'm afraid that you're now stuck in this place. In Camelot. It seems that something's gonna happen, and we just arrived in the wrong time. However we came. They also took me when I appeared, and asked me the same questions. And then I escaped."  
Michael swallowed, nervously: "What do they want?"  
"They are waiting for someone to come... You know, that medieval crap. They are always waiting for signals from the heavens," she mocked. "But I am not sure if the person they are waiting is supposed to be welcomed... or not."  
Chris looked at her suspicious: "Maybe it'd have been better to stay, and try to discover..."  
The girl laughed again: "Do you have any idea of how these people have fun with their prisoners?? Oh no, you don't wanna know."  
"Did they have fun with you?" Chris asked, sarcastic, pissed off with the attitude of the girl and the whole situation.  
Michael bit his lip, when he saw the way in which she looked at his friend. He could not stop thinking that she had also shimmered...  
"I escaped before they could. And you should be grateful. Don't go out of these caves, though, or they'll find you. I risked myself to save your stupid asses, guys."  
Chris sighed and turned back, to sit on the ground, next to the rocky walls. Then he rubbed his eyes: "This is all a nightmare..."  
Michael stared at the girl for some seconds, and then went to sit by his friend. "And are we supposed to stay here, and that's all? Haven't you tried to go back to your time?"  
The girl shrugged, now with an angry countenance. "I'm on it. But it's hard, it seems we are just stuck in this damned place!" She kicked the wall, making Chris raise his eyes.  
"You orbed..." he said.  
She nodded, and answered dryly: "Yes, and what if I did?"  
Chris looked her intensely in the eyes: "I can't do it..."  
She shrugged again: "It's your problem."  
"No it's more than that." Chris stood up, and grabbed her by the arm: "You're gonna tell us now everything, why you are here, why I can't orb and you can, and why you can also shimmer. WHO are you??"  
She shook him off and looked at him despitefully: "Too many questions. That's not kind... I am here because I entered that forest, and there must have been some kind of portal that was activated in the wrong moment and at the wrong place, because I am not supposed to be here. I can orb because I practised, that's all. Being in a different time, your powers need to adjust. You were not a whitelighter in this time, I guess, so this time does not accept you as such, for now. And I can shimmer because I am half-darklighter. Your turn."  
When they heard that she was half-darklighter, the blood froze in Chris's veins. Michael stood up and went to them, looking at the girl scared, as she folded her arms in front of her chest, waiting. The kept looking into each other's eyes for a long while.  
Michael stared at the girl, wondering if she would do anything to kill them.  
The girl grinned in a weird way. "If I wanted to kill you, I would've already done it," she stated, guessing his thoughts.  
Chris and Michael kept their eyes focused on the girl, making her angry: "WILL YOU STOP STARING AT MY LIKE THAT"  
Chris noticed that she wore a black top, almost corset like, and black pants, which were not really fitting to her face at all... Something about her was just off... Then he turned to Michael, who had noticed that too, and said with a worried voice: "you seem to have a weakness for black clothes? "  
The girl rolled her eyes, sighed and answered: "I like them, that's all, got a problem with that? Just because I'm wearing black clothes, I don't have to be evil."  
Chris kept looking at her, his face an unreadable mask. "I didn't say that, did I?" he asked with a calm but strong voice.  
The girl sighed tiredly: "Ok... I so don't need that... Come on, I've could have left you there, waiting for things to happen to you. Do you think I have any advantage out of that? I would expect a little more gratitude! And if you don't trust me, fine! That's your problem!"

°°°°°°°°°°

Angela was sitting on the sofa in the living room, her face buried in her hands. She felt desperate. She had just began to get used to all that magic stuff. And now her husband was gone.  
"Don't worry," Bianca said, even if she was worried on her own. She sat besides her friend and had put an arm around her shoulders. "Where ever they are, they are together I'm sure. And you know, Chris will protect Mike at any coast."  
Angela swallowed than nodded. Then she turned her eyes to the Phoenix: "How can you do that? Be so calm, I mean..."  
Bianca shrugged: "With the time, you'll get used to it..."  
Meanwhile Phoebe, Leo and Odin were discussing what they could do to find them, while Piper and Cole took care of the kids.  
Then the front-door was opened. "Hey, someone at home?!" Paige called.  
"We're here!" Piper shouted back.  
Seconds later, the witch-whitelighter entered and stopped the same second frozen in surprise. Then she grinned in a weird way. "No..." she said, "no-no-nooo... Don't tell me there is any trouble, because today I have a DATE!"  
"Chris and Mike are missing," Phoebe answered dryly.  
Paige put on a whiny face and sank down to the armchair. "Ohhhhh-noooooo..."

°°°°°°°°°°

"GREAT! JUST GREAT!" Michael yelled frustrated, kicking against the bench which stood in that little cell.  
"Shhhhh..." Chris commanded. Then he tried to hear what was going on outside.  
The two men had discussed with that girl a little longer. Chris couldn't trust her. She said she was from the future from their time, and she was a whitelighter with some darklighter-blood... But... He, Chris, was an Elder. He knew every whitelighter, but he didn't know her. So she must be lying in some point... and... she shimmered...  
Then suddenly the girl had became nervous. She said she would feel someone coming, and she said she would believe that this person is one of her friends. But to be sure, the men had to hide, just in case... So she had put them into that little cell.  
Then Chris heard again the sound of orbing from outside the cell, and ordered his friend to be quiet.  
"Welcome, my master," he heard the girl say.  
"Did you catch them?" he heard another voice. A male voice which let the blood in Chris's veins froze. That couldn't be, could it?  
"Oh my God..." he muttered.  
"WHAT?" his friend exclaimed, but Chris gestured him to keep silent. He had to hear more about that conversation.  
"My Lord, do you think it's them? They seem so... not very noble," the girl said.  
The other one laughed: "Without his sword the king wouldn't be more noble than you are, right."  
There was a moment, where Chris could only hear some words, but they didn't make sense to him. Then he heard the man say: "We need to get Excalibur. Destroying that sword is the only way to keep the balance. We have to do it..."  
"And those two in my cell...?" Chris heard the girl.  
Then the man was laughing, which made Chris shiver. "They are very dangerous. If the prophecy is true, they are the only ones who can spoil our plan. And we can't let that happen. I saw a great evil, destroying the whole word in the future... and that evil will be an owner of this sword. So if we destroy this sword, we'll maybe stop him..."  
"So do you want me to kill them," the girl asked. Then Chris heard just another laughter.  
He turned around to Michael: "We need to get out of here!"  
"Oh nice, that you already realised that too..." his friend answered sarcastically.  
Chris took a deep breath: "We need to orb, I think it should work by now... but I can't guarantee that it will work, or that we'll not end up in the middle of a rock or something."  
Michael looked at him scared. But when they heard footsteps outside the cell, he took his friends hand and said: "Let's go!"

°°°°°°°°°°

The dinner was very delicious. Nicki was a good in cooking. They had some pasta with a hot chilli-cheese-sauce.  
While eating the three friends had a lot of fun, talking about their past, about all the things they shared, and about the Halliwells. They realised that it was just a little more than a year, since they got involved with all that crap... but it felt like an eternity.  
But then the discussion went on to Steve's mom. "She didn't and she will not come," the young man sadly answered Nicki's question.  
She felt sorry, that she had asked and hugged him lovingly. "I'm so sorry, honey," she said. Damn it, this was his birthday. She should be there, at least this one day.  
"By the way," Tom said then trying to change the topic a little, "what powers do you have Mr. Half-Elder?"  
Steve shrugged: "I don't know... only what I already told you..."  
"But didn't you say, that you wanted to ask Chris about that..."  
The blonde man sighed: "Yeah, but I didn't... he's busy enough with helping me, to see my mom..."  
"And he will make it," Nicki added, giving him a kiss on his cheek.  
Steve sighed, then nodded: "I hope so..."

°°°°°°°°°°

When Merlin entered the throne-room, the king looked up. The sorcerer went over to him and took a bow. "My king," he greeted.  
"Rise Merlin," the king said, "did you hear about those two men which we captured today?" The sorcerer nodded. "So... what do you know about them?"  
Merlin shrugged uncomfortable: "If you ask me if they are those, the legend is talking about, then I can't answer that. I haven't even seen them, my Lord."  
"What exactly are the words of that legend," Guinevere asked. She noticed the look of her husband, but didn't care. After all it was Merlin they were talking to.  
"Well..." the sorcerer said, "it says: 'One day there will be a man, brave and good as the king, who will be equal to him in any sense. He would be able to give peace to the world with Excalibur in his hands.' And later in that legend, it said that this person is one half of the whole and that his time to rule will come when he met the sword the second time."  
King Arthur sighed: "Do you think, that means that this person will go after me and my crown?"  
Merlin glanced back at him and then sighed: "I don't know for sure, but... if it is like this, than it would be a cross-purposes to the legend."  
The king frowned thinking hard, then he nodded.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Michael appeared somewhere outside the cave. Actually Chris had tried to orb a little more away from that place, but he could only hardly control it. At least he was happy that it worked this far and they didn't materialised inside the stony wall.  
"Ok, and now?" Michael asked.  
Chris took a deep breath, looking at their surrounding. Then he turned to his friend: "First: Away from here, because I guess this girl will not be very pleased when she finds her cell empty..." He started to walk straight in line, while he went on talking: "Second: We'll need to go back to Camelot."  
"WHAT?" Michael exclaimed, "we just escaped them, what do you think they will do to us, when we return?"  
Chris stopped and turned around: "I don't care what they will do as long as they listen... I heard them talking, they want the sword!"  
"WHAT?"  
Chris went on, on his way through the forest. He didn't want to orb, it was to risky. Who knows where they would end up... and who would maybe see them. Michael shook his head, then followed him.  
"So you really believe all this is true?" he asked, after a while. "I mean... you believe that's the real Camelot?"  
"I do." Chris answered shortly, looking around, in search for their enemies.  
"Well... that's good because I read..."  
Chris stooped his friend with a movement of his hand. They had reached a way. And not only that, they could hear horses coming closer.  
"What shall we do?" Michael asked.  
Chris looked around: "Well I guess we'll never reach the city on our feet..."  
A moment later, they saw some horses in the distance. Two noble knights were riding there, followed by their retinue. Michael looked at his friend, then stepped forward to bar the way.  
"Mike, what the hell are you doing," Chris hissed. But his friend just send him a wink. Then the horses stopped in front of him.  
"What do you want, what shall that be? Who are you?" one of the knights, a tall one, asked.  
Michael took a bow. "My Lord, Sir Lancelot..." he said, recognising the sign on his shield, "we need your help."  
"Our help?" the other knight asked, a little more unfriendly then the first one. He observed the man and his weird clothes carefully.  
Chris just looked at Michael. 'How did he know that?' he thought. Then he saw a gesture from his friend and stepped to his side as he went on talking.  
"Please, don't judge us by our appearance. We had been captured by some evil persons. We could listen to their talks before we could escape," Michael explained.  
"And?" the second knight said a little annoyed. Meanwhile the other one, who Michael had called Lancelot, seemed to be at least a little interested.  
"We heard that they want to get the sword of our king," Chris added.  
Now the second night turned to his colleague while the first one looked straight at Chris, looking into his eyes, searching for the truth in his words. "That's stu..." the second one said, but Lancelot raised his had to stop him.  
"Why do you think that our king isn't able to defend himself?" he asked then with a warm and friendly voice.  
"Because they want to take him by surprise..." Chris said, feeling that he could trust that knight. "He's a kind of sorcerer but much more powerful than that, and he's very evil."  
Lancelot nodded. Then he lifted his helmet. Now they could see him. He was a good looking man with long brown hair and clear blue eyes, which looked as friendly as he had sounded before. "I'm not sure why, but I believe you... So? Do you know the name of that person, who is after our king?"  
"Well," Michael said, "we could only..."  
But Chris interrupted him: "His name is Gideon!"  
When Michael heard these words his head flew around to watch his friend, who's face was cold and determined. That couldn't be, could it?  
Chris watched as the eyes of the knight turned dark, it seemed he knew that name very well, too. Then Lancelot nodded: "I'll believe you. Jump up. We'll take you to the king."

* * *

_(Chapter 2 written by Chrissy.W.x, Darklighter and Belén)_


	3. Chapter 3

**A Charmed Story - Part Ten:  
An Elder's Tale  
Chapter 3**

The girl slowly went to the very back of the cave and opened the heavy cell door: "What the...? THEY'RE GONE!" she exclaimed to herself, "God, this isn't good." Worried she looked around. Gideon was already gone, but still she feared he could notice. 'I got to find them, he will kill me if I don't!' she thought almost terrified.  
She tried to sense for the two men, but it wouldn't work, her powers weren't working on maximum at that place. The cave was naturally shielded from magical influences. She could not been sensed from the outside, means she was safe there. But she also couldn't use her sensing powers from the inside, so she did the only logical thing. She went out of the cave...  
Outside she tried to sense for them again. It was vague, but it worked. She orbed a bit away from the place she had located them. She appeared in the middle of the woods. First she wasn't sure what to do next, but then she heard the clapping sound of horses and decided to go towards that.

°°°°°°°°°°

When the knights saw a young lady crossing their way, they stopped.  
Chris looked over the knight's shoulder to see what's going on and recognised her immediately. Looking at Michael he said, loud enough for her to hear it, too: "Don't trust her, that girl is working for him!"  
The girl looked at Chris with a mixture of anger and desperation. Why had her life to be so difficult? She didn't know what to do. It was obvious, that they had found out about Gideon, but she couldn't be sure about how much they really knew. Frustrated as she was, all she could think of was yelling back at Chris: "Yeah, but you don't even know why. And just for you to know... 'that girl' has a name, it's Amy!!!!" After that, knowing that she could only do less with the knights surrounding them - not after what Chris had said - she quickly orbed away again.  
While the other knight grumbled quietly, Lancelot turned to Chris with a wondering look. The Elder-witch just shrugged, then said: "I think we should hurry. I'm not sure what else she's able to do..." The knight nodded and so they went on.  
Those two knights had been really friendly to the two time travellers, offering them to ride with them on their horses. Michael was riding with Sir Lancelot and Chris had joined the other knight. He had been wondering who he could be, when that girl had appeared, giving them that little show. Probably she'd inform Gideon now... Chris had never felt so tense in his life.  
He was trying to understand so many things... For example, why Sir Lancelot hadn't been impressed by the appearance of that Amy. And why he kind of seemed to know Gideon. Or the reason why Gideon was trying to kill them and get the sword.  
It was for Wyatt... Had he been after his brother for so long?? How come none had known before? And Wyatt had changed, so... How was it possible that Gideon had seen THAT future, the future which didn't exist anymore? Because he had finished with it... They kept silent for a while, as he tried to understand all that, hoping that they would reach their destination soon.

°°°°°°°°°°

Amy orbed back into the cave, sighing she walked around, to see if no one else was there. Then she bend down to the ground and opened a squeaky hatch door.  
She looked around hasty, afraid that Gideon could return. She looked worried into the dark hole... it was still there! Carefully she pulled out a little case and opened it. Again looking around if there was no one watching her, she pulled out a silver bracelet, with graceful signs on it. Smiling slightly, she put it on and the case back to it's secret place. Then she went to another end of the cave, where she sat down on a red soft blanket, that lied near to the one flat wall of the cave.  
She knew the two men, Chris and Mike, wouldn't come back, she had sensed that they were on the way to Camelot. She had to stop them, but she didn't know how. It seemed to her, that her mind just needed a little rest. And she hoped Gideon wouldn't come either. At least not in the next few minutes.  
Tired she closed her eyes and thought about what happened... the last four days since she was there in that place... since she had found the cave.  
"What? A cave! Finally, some luck!" she had said happily to herself.  
She had hurried to the entrance, she almost tripped on her way but finally got there. Curious she had looked around, but there wasn't much to see... It was very dark, though she had seen a cloaked man standing there...  
She froze but the man said kindly: "You don't have to be afraid, I can help you if you help me, Amy"  
She had stepped back afraid and exclaimed: "How do you know my name!?"  
The man had calmly stepped closer to her, saying with a friendly voice: "I know your parents, and I can help you find them, but you have to help me before I can do that."  
Amy had laughed sarcastically: "Ok, one, my parents are dead and two I don't help guys I just know, guys I can't trust."  
The man had raised his voice, he didn't seem so friendly anymore: "I don't think you have any choice, since I know about your existence... I have to make sure, the Elders in the future know about your existence too, don't you think?"  
Amy started to get jumpy... What should she do... Was she even having a choice? She was terrified by the thought that they could know... She didn't know what would happen to her, but she was sure it wouldn't be anything good.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Yeah," Piper sighed, looking at her frustrated little sister. "Again!!!" She was really getting tired of all of this, of always worrying about her son or another family member. She was just frustrated.  
"Don't worry honey, we'll find them in time." Leo tried to calm her, which didn't exactly work.  
"I will worry... I can't stop worrying!! What if we don't find them in time, what if it's already too late??!" Piper was really yelling now. She didn't sleep very well last night because Christopher was crying all the time, and she was ill a few days ago... Not to mention the craftsmen, who were still around from 7 am to 5 pm.  
She cried, she didn't mean to yell at her husband. "I'm so sorry honey, I'm just so worried," she said very soft, so that only Leo could hear her.  
He just sighed and kissed her. 'Where the hell are you Chris?' he thought.  
Paige waited a minute till they were all a little bit calmed down and no one else was gonna say anything, then she looked down disappointed and said: "I'll call Kyle to cancel the date." With a sigh she walked out of the room to the kitchen. But you could still hear her mumbling to herself.  
Bianca sighed while Piper hugged her husband tightly. This was all so frustrating.

°°°°°°°°°°

In the kitchen Paige was busy calling Kyle. "555-3046..." she said to herself, while she hit in the number. Seconds later the phone was ringing.  
"Hello?" Kyle said a bit tired, it wasn't exactly late. But he had a hard day at work, so he had tried to sleep a little before his date.  
"Hey Kyle. It's me, Paige..." She sighed.  
Kyle sighed too: "I guess you're calling to cancel the date again? Is it because of the demons?"  
Paige was happy she didn't have to say it herself. "Yes, I'm so sorry. It's just... Chris is missing... And of course we have to search for him."  
"I can set out a search warrant," Kyle responded as a cop.  
Paige laughed softly, it was cute that he wanted to help. "No, you don't have to. It won't work; Wyatt can't sense him, so he isn't in this world... or time... or plane... or whatever..." she tried to explain.  
Kyle was still a little confused, he knew he had still much to learn about magic. But he couldn't help to be a little bit disappointed, even if he understood the situation. Knowing he couldn't help, he promised Paige that he was fine and not angry at her for cancelling, before saying good night to Paige, so that she could go and search for Chris and Michael.

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca had been staring into the nothing for a while, as the others kept discussing, and Paige tried to contact Kyle. For some reasons, she was thinking again of that weird dream she had had before. The angel of death... She felt a thrill that made her shiver. He had talked about the different planes, and the two of them dying in the other plane in spite of all their efforts to save the world. _"You were on my list in your future. Both of you. Do you think your timeline disappeared? Your timelines... All of them, are still there. What once existed can not be erased..._" he had said. Those words were imprinted in her mind so strongly that she had been able to hear them all the nights since her vision. _"When you saved this future, or better said... When you created this new future, your destiny was to go back. Once there, your now beloved Wyatt would have taken you two and killed you with no mercy. You two were on my list."_ Bianca blinked several times, trying to throw those thoughts away, but she couldn't. _"You two were on my list."_  
"Are you ok, Bianca?" It was Odin's voice. He, as well as all the others, was now looking at her worriedly. "You look really pale."  
She raised her eyes and tried to smile. "I'm fine, only... thinking," she answered, still lost in her thoughts. Angela put a hand on her knee understanding, as Leo sighed, and went on with his talk...  
"Ok. We have to find them. And we need to do it as soon as possible. I think it's good if we divide in groups. Some can go to those woods and try to sense him, if we are near... who knows. Piper, you and your sisters can try to scry for them. And Odin, you could go up there, and use the oracle? Or keep informed about the shift of time."  
"Shift of time..." Bianca repeated, feeling a slight shiver again.  
At that moment, Paige returned with a sad expression on her face. "Done. If all this turns to be a false alarm, I am gonna kill him with my own hands," she said, gaining several angry looks from the others. She shrugged: "Sorry... I was just making fun... I am sure they're ok..."  
"No one here can sense him, Paige, what the hell makes you be so sure that they're fine??" Phoebe asked a bit angrily.  
Cole held her hand softly, trying to calm her down, as Paige raised her hands defensively: "I am so sorry, girls! I won't say a word..."  
"Can he be in another plane?" Bianca asked suddenly, feeling uneasy when all the looks turned to her again.  
"That's what I told Kyle. Probably we can't sense him because he's in another plane, and..."  
Leo cut her off, frowning interested in that: "What do you mean, Bianca... Do you have any idea of what could be going on?"  
She opened her mouth but closed it again, nervously. _"You were on my list in your future. Both of you. Do you think your timeline disappeared? Your timelines... All of them, are still there. What once existed cannot be erased..." She looked at Odin, feeling her heart beating faster. "We felt a shift... A shift of time."_  
"What if... what if he crossed a portal accidentally?" she said.  
'What if he and Michael ended up in his own timeline? In the one we were supposed to die...' she thought. She should have told Chris. She should have talked with him and let him know that their timeline hadn't disappeared. It was still there, and also the possibility that they went back and met the evil Wyatt. Because it hadn't been a dream. It couldn't have been a nightmare...

°°°°°°°°°°

Lancelot was riding behind the other knight, looking intensely at Chris's back. "Was she a witch?" he asked finally.  
Chris startled a little bit, and then turned to look at him, but Lancelot was smiling kindly. There was something in his eyes that made him feel good. "No, she is not," he answered, carefully.  
Michael was holding tight to the young knight, and his countenance was a bit greenish. He had never ridden a horse before, except for those in the carrousel, which was not the best thing to remember at the moment.  
"She escaped from us before. A couple of times, actually. We don't know how to fight those bluish lights that help her disappear. People say it's the devil that helps her, but it's not, is it?"  
Chris swallowed, and then shook his head: "Why should I know? We were just her prisoners... and her master's."  
The other knight growled a little bit. "Prisoners always know more than they say."  
This made Lancelot laugh heartily: "My good friend Gawain, you'll never change. Don't listen to him. He can be very scary, but he's just like a dog... Friendly and kind, when you get to know him."  
Gawain growled again, but said nothing, which made Chris smile, but kept silent.  
This caused that Lancelot tried again: "I thought you might know because you're wearing clothes as weird as hers, and talk in the same way." He shrugged: "Actually, I have an idea... You are more or less like me, so we'll stop at the house of my uncle and I'll lend you two some clothes. You can not go around Camelot dressed up in that way, and I guess you are, more or less, like me. Maybe your friend here is shorter, but I think it'll work."  
Chris nodded slowly. He was sure that the knight knew more than he was showing. Could he really trust him? But he thought he should. He had never read those storied, but Sir Lancelot's fame was good. The noblest of King Arthur's knights... And Gawain was also a familiar name. Perhaps Michael could tell him more, later.  
"Ok... Thanks," he said, finally, looking back to see his face. He was still smiling, as Chris added: "Why do you trust us, Sir Lancelot?"  
The knight bowed a little bit: "Because I, as well as my Lord the king, believe in magic, and I also know that the devil is not always behind it."  
Chris startled a little bit. Did he know he was a witch? No... But probably he suspected something because they were kind of outstanding.  
"Can we stop??" It was Mike's feeble voice. He was about to throw up.

°°°°°°°°°°

Odin sighed after the Phoenix had finished her explanation. Finally she had decided to tell them about her dream or vision or whatever. She couldn't deal with that alone any longer.  
Now Odin went over to her, and put his arm around her, a gesture he had seen people do so often to comfort a friend. "Bianca... don't worry. There is no way they could have entered an alternative reality," he said with a calm voice. The woman looked up. Also Angela, who was really scared after those things Bianca had told them, turned to him.  
The Elder sighed again and sat down on the edge of the table. "Yes, there are alternative realities, and I'm sure that in one or more of them, Wyatt still turns evil. And Chris had a connection to those realities, that's a part of what threw him out of any time, and he pulled you with him," he explained. "But Chris had giving up that connection. And believe me, when I say, that - even if he had not done so - there is NO chance to get to one of those planes."  
"But the time travelling..." Leo remarked. He had listen to his friend as interested as the rest of the Halliwells. Because they had never get a proper explanation of all that.  
Odin nodded: "The time travels are bound to that rule. If you change something, you'll go back to the most likely future, according to the things that happened..."  
"So you say that there is no way, that Chris could meet an evil Wyatt? His Wyatt?" Bianca asked.  
The Elder nodded again: "I talked to Wyatt when he came the second time from the future, well the good one I mean. And I asked him what happened, when he went back to his time, the first time... And he said he turned back to a future, where those things, he wanted to change, had changed, even if he could still remember his other reality."  
"Ok... But what about that Angel of death? Why did he say, that he was the one who saved them?" Piper asked still worried.  
"Because THAT is true." Odin sighed again and turned to Bianca with a look of guilt. "Actually we planned to erase your existence. We didn't thought it would be good to have both versions of you in one time and you had that connection... so it was impossible for us to send you back, either. This could have cursed even more trouble... But the Angel didn't follow his order. Chris had been on his list before he brought you back, Bianca. He was supposed to die here, saving his brother. But he brought you here and with this he saved his own life and yours, too. So the Angel thought, because together you escaped him, that you must be something special that we shouldn't destroy. And he was right, we found out that it was our gain. We need you both, we just didn't understand that at that time."  
Bianca nodded. Piper was in the mood to blow Odin up, how could he even think about killing her son. But she also saw that he really regretted his thoughts from the past.  
"I'm sorry," Odin said then. "Sometimes the Angels of Death have a really black humour. I guess he just wanted you to find out about all this..."  
Bianca couldn't help smiling. Then she hugged the Elder: "Thanks for telling us all that... Thank you."

°°°°°°°°°°

As soon they had stopped, Michael jumped up from the horse and went into the wood. Then they heard him emptying the content of his stomach.  
Chris sighed as Lancelot get up and helped Chris down to. "We shouldn't rest too long, we have to hurry," the Elder-witch said.  
But Lancelot just smiled at him and then turned to the other knight: "Gawain, there is a little brook at the next turn of the way. Could you go ahead with the others and let the horses drink? We follow you by feet." Gawain nodded and took the rein and then he rode away.  
Chris looked a Lancelot annoyed: "What if she comes back?"  
"Who? That Amy?" He shook his head: "I don't think so."  
Chris couldn't believe it: "How can you be so sure?"  
Now the knight smiled: "Because of you..." When he saw the completely confused face of that stranger he laughed heartily. "Ok... Let's say it this way: If she would have a chance against us, then she would have already attacked. But she didn't. So I guess you, or your friend or you both are much more powerful than her." With that he began to walk down the road. Chris just stood there, eyes and mouth wide open.  
After a few steps, the knight turned around: "Come on... I'm not going to burn you... you just need to trust me, because else I can't help."  
Chris sighed but didn't moved: "She's partly a whitelighter, but she has also demonic blood inside her."  
Lancelot nodded, and went back to him. Now Chris noticed that he was limping a little. "Did she tell you that?" he asked when he stopped in front of Chris again.  
"She can orb, the thing with the lights, that's what whitelighters do. But she can also shimmer, that's something demons do... She said she's partly darklighter, but they are orbing too, only with dark lights... at least there where I came from." Chris answered truthfully. He didn't know why he trusted that knight to the fullest, but he did. It was just something in his eyes that made him trust him... Like he had trusted Michael from the beginning.  
"So... Where do you come from, and by the way, what's you name?" Lancelot asked back.  
Now Chris realised that he hadn't introduced himself and Michael. he felt stupid and ashamed, what was he thinking? "Sorry, I didn't mean...I should have introduced us. I'm Chris, and my friend is called Mike." The knight offered him his hand and Chris took it. Then he asked: "What happened to your leg?"  
Lancelot shrugged: "An arrow hit me in our last fight. It isn't healing very well."  
Chris nodded. Smiling he said: "I can't promise that it will work... I feel like a little out of practise here in this place, but..." He knelt down, and looking up to the knight he added: "Don't be afraid." Then he placed his hand over his leg and concentrated. Seconds later the golden light appeared and Lancelot could feel how his wound healed. When the light faded and Chris finally rose again, the pain was gone. Lancelot looked at him with a mixture of confusion and astonishment. Chris just smiled shyly: "And to answer your second question... I... We... We're coming from another time I guess... There I'm an Elder, we're... let's say we're watching over the world. But partly I'm also a witch." Lancelot just nodded.  
"DAMNED CHRIS ARE YOU COMPLETELY NUTS?!?!?" Michael exclaimed. He just came back out of the wood when he saw and heard his friend. "Do you know what they do to people like you?"  
Lancelot smiled, when Chris rolled his eyes: "Don't worry... Mike, right? I will not hurt you, non of you, and I promise I will help you to see the king... Actually I think he's waiting for you."  
Chris and Mike turned to each other and then back to the knight: "WHAT?"

°°°°°°°°°°

Amy raised her watery eyes, coming back to reality, and dried them with her sleeve, harshly and furious. Why were all those things happening to her? Why her?? Four days had passed, and she was still stuck in that hell of a place, and in such a stupid situation. And just because she was looking for answers in that forest, the place where her parents had been seen for the last time.  
_"Amy, honey... everything's gonna be ok now, but you need to be strong, alright?"_ Her parents had been killed. No one let her see the bodies, of course. She was too young for that. But as far as she knew, they had been killed by the double demons. They wanted her... They wanted her... Her eyes welled up in tears again. Her parents had refused to deliver their daughter to those visionaries, and they had just killed them 'for the greatest welfare.' To the hell with that! Then, the people who took care of the 'little child', gave her the bracelet that had belonged to her mother. They had found it in the wood... maybe by the side of her mom.  
Amy took a deep breath. What was she doing there...? Again images of her past came to her mind, one year before these events: she had been caught together with all the double demons or whatever they were called, and entrapped in those huge cave-cages. She had been put together with the demonic group, who knows why... But she thought she could take advantage of that to know what happened to her parents, and to find revenge.  
When she heard the call of the double demons in her mind, when that golden light surrounded her, as well as the other mestizos as she, she thought the moment had come. She would not go with them, but she needed to escape. Thus, she just joined them and when they were going out of the cage; she black-orbed, just in time to escape from inside the cage, and at the same time, to avoid going with them. It took her only a couple of seconds. Then, she reappeared behind some rocks, and stayed there for a while, not knowing what was the best thing to do. She kept pondering what was better, going after them and discover something, or stay there and maybe free those darklighters and demons who were there and would likely help her to get her revenge against their same captives.  
But she stayed enough time to see something... Actually she saw a lot... She had seen Christopher Perry Halliwell for the first time, as well as his wife, the Phoenix, and the source of all evil and his weird interaction with that man called Cole. Yes... She had seen all that, and how the Phoenix almost died, and then she heard the news that made Chris jump in happiness. 'The child must be born already,' she thought. Amy stayed there until she was left alone, and then went out. It was so silent... so silent... The double demons had died. Chris's family, the Charmed Ones, had killed them. And now, she was alone again, and there was no way to find out why they had killed her parents, though she had a good idea of why they wanted her.  
And now? Now she should kill that man and his friend... but could she really do that?  
Amy leant her head against the wall, when a voice made her startle.  
"Well... I see you not only lost them, but also tried to trick me out. That is not good... You should know."  
Amy swallowed and stared him in the eyes: "You lied to me, didn't you? You said you could tell me the truth about my parents, but they died, and did it in the future. You know perfectly well where I come from, don't you??"  
Gideon's face contorted in a furious expression: "Try to control yourself, young lady. I have the control here, don't forget that, never." Amy lowered her eyes again, but Gideon's face relaxed: "Listen: I know more than you think. I am on the greatest good's side. I don't wanna hurt you... I just want to save the world, and that's why I need your help. And you'll get your prize, I avail that." He took her chin and help her raise her face to look at him, as he smiled: "Are you going to help me in that?"  
She swallowed, and then nodded, closing her eyes: "Are you sure that we need to kill them?" she asked, her voice trembling, because of the sobs.  
Gideon nodded gravely: "For the greatest good. And for your family."  
"Are my parents here? Did they end up stuck here...?" she asked, with hope reflected in her voice.  
Gideon did not answer at once. Then, he said: "Trust me. Everything's gonna be fine at the end. And now... Bring them back."  
She shook her head: "They don't trust me anymore. They must have heard us talking..."  
Gideon's face turned tense at her words: "Did they hear everything?"  
She looked him in the eyes, hesitant. "I... I think they just got to hear enough to know that I was against them..."  
Gideon shook his head and stepped backwards, sighing tiredly: "Convince them again that you are with them. We need them. We can't let them get what they are looking for."  
She nodded again and stood up slowly, staring at the Elder. Then he turned to her, and smiled: "Go." And she did not wait more for the fulfilment of his orders.

°°°°°°°°°°

After they were done with their dinner, Tom stretched noisily.  
"Tom!!!" his two friends exclaimed at once, making him chuckle.  
"WHAT!?" he answered between laughs.  
"That's so rude, man!! Stretching at the table of your hosts!" Steve told him off, really angry.  
But Tom kept smiling: "Don't you know that when you feel sleepy after eating, it is because you are totally satisfied? This means 'Hey, guys, thanks; I've never had such a good dinner in my life'."  
Nicki shook her head and chuckled, but she snapped softly at the back of Tom's neck.  
"Ouch!" he exclaimed, rubbing his neck.  
"You'll never change, man..." Steve said, finally smiling. His friend always knew how to make him feel better, no matter what. Then, he stood up and started to clean the table, helped by the others immediately.  
"On my way home I rented a movie. I thought that maybe Tom would like to see it with us..." Nicki suggested, while she dried the dishes her boyfriend gave her, freshly washed, and handed them over to Tom who put them to their right places.  
Both men turned to look at her. "Which is the movie?" Tom asked, interested.  
Steve meanwhile was still thinking of his mother and if she'd finally show up, at some point. He wasn't really interested in watching a movie or to do anything else to at least kind of celebrate his birthday. But he acknowledged the attempt of his friends. So he at least tried to look interested.  
"The Mist of Avalon," Nicki said excited.  
"What?? Nicki, that's a really long movie..." Steve complained, but she simply smiled.  
"We have time... We don't wanna go to bed straight away."  
Steve sighed as he washed another dish, but Tom looked at her smiling.

°°°°°°°°°°

Finally they had split up in teams. Odin was back in the upper world to sense for Chris with the others. Leo was up there too, talking to the oracle.  
Bianca got the part of taking care of Angela and the kids... but mostly of Angela. That poor woman needed a distraction, otherwise she would freak out sooner or later.  
Phoebe and Cole were upstairs in the attic scrying for Chris and Michael. And last but not least Paige and Piper where at the magic school to find out more about that phenomenon of a time-shift.  
"Jesus... so much books about time but none of them is referring to a any kind of shift," Piper said frustrated. Paige nodded and slammed another book shut: "We're not getting any further."  
"Yeah," the oldest said, whiny, "and my son is again lost in somewhere... why had it always to be him? I mean, didn't he already done enough for this stupid little world? Didn't he already sacrifices enough?"  
Paige sighed, went over to her sister and hugged her: "Don't worry, we'll find him... We'll always do... and now even the Elders are searching for him..."  
"Yeah those guys I still don't trust," Piper snapped back.  
"Whatever... we find them... I'm sure."  
Piper turned her face around to look her sister into her eyes: "But how? How shall we find them if they are in another time??? We can scry for places but for times...???"  
Suddenly there was a little light in Paige's eyes: "I think I got a very interesting idea..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Leo kept his eyes focused on the oracle as he asked for the hundred of times: "But can't you tell me where Chris is?"  
The oracle just repeated the same sentences like the last time.  
"He's on his way to find out the truth about him. The last piece of the puzzle. He's about to understand his destiny, his fate. He will find his true soul, his true heart. He's about to find out why he had to go through all this in his life. When he's back, everything will make sense to him, finally."  
Leo sighed frustrated: "Yeah, damned, but WHERE is it where he shall find this out?"

°°°°°°°°°°

After another two hours the group reached a small village. It already began to get dark. Lancelot had giving Chris and Mike each an old rug which they had put around them. "Is this your home-town?" Michael asked curious, while they made their way through the small roads of the village. "My uncle's family lives a little outside," the knight had answered. "I pay them a visit whenever I can."  
Chris noticed that everyone looked down and took a little bow when they passed them. That was good, no one would see them clearly, not with that dim light and not if they looked away immediately.  
A few minutes later they had passed the center of the village and then they reached a small but beautiful farmhouse.  
As soon as they got down from the horses a young girl appeared and ran over to them: "Lancelot... it's good to see you, we've missed you so much."  
Lancelot hugged her tightly: "It's good to be back, my little cousin." Then he turned and introduced his companion's. "And these are Chris and Mike... could you take them in and give them some clothes of mine, theirs are kind of ruined."  
The girl looked at the two men, who where still wrapped into the rugs, with suspection. But then she smiled: "Follow me."  
Michael did, but Chris turned to the knight: "Do you really think it's a good idea to stay here over night? I'm not sure that we have the time to..."  
"Yes, I know. But the horses need a rest, and we need something to eat... We'll go on, early in the morning... don't worry, we'll be in Camelot tomorrow noon..."

* * *

_(Chapter 3 written by Darklighter, charmedfreak, Belén and Chrissy.W.x)  
_


	4. Chapter 4

**A Charmed Story - Part Ten:  
An Elder's Tale  
Chapter 4**

Odin, Silas, Elenia, Lyta and a few other Elders had sat down in a circle in one of the meditation-rooms. They had all closed their eyes and tried to sense for Chris. But they couldn't find him. One time they got the feeling that he was somewhere in Great Britain but it was only week and it was gone as fast as they had noticed it.  
'That's strange, really strange,' Silas thought.  
Odin opened one eye, to look at his friend, who sat beside him. "What is strange?" he asked.  
Silas sighed, he hadn't noticed that he had whispered his thoughts. "That we can't find him," he announced, "it's like someone doesn't want us to find him."  
Lyta nodded: "Yes, like someone is trying to distract us."  
Odin took a deep breath: "I noticed that, too. Like a big concentration of power is blinding us, right?" Everyone nodded and Odin sighed

°°°°°°°°°°

Phoebe slammed the crystal on the table. "Damned!" she cursed while Cole was massaging her neck. Phoebe just couldn't find them.  
At that moment bluish orbing lights filled the room. "Did you find them?" Piper asked, when she materialised with Paige.  
"No," Cole announced with a frustrated sigh.  
"But, maybe we have something..." Paige said smiling.  
The other two looked confused at her, while the witch-whitelighter rolled out a large paper on the small table.  
"What is that?" Phoebe asked confused.  
"THAT... is the time-scale we use for the history lessons at the school... Come on... try it again..."  
Cole looked at her confused: "You mean?" But his wife was already trying it.  
She moved the scrying crystal over the time-scale. It was circling above it, but nothing seemed to happen. Piper sighed, with the feeling that it again wouldn't work.  
But then, the crystal moved faster. And finally it slipped out of Phoebes fingers and landed on 999.  
"Jesus!" Piper exclaimed. "They're in the Middle Age!"  
At that very same moment Leo came orbing in. He stepped closer to the table, as he saw everybody around it. With a surprised look on his face he immediately understood the brilliant idea behind the school's history time scale. So he asked: "You found them?"  
Piper rose her head, and was looking at her husband, with fear and worry in her eyes. With a shivering voice she said: "They are in the Middle Age!"  
Leo swallowed, shocked. That wasn't good. Those were dangerous times for witches, especially for powerful ones like Chris. "Well, we got to inform the other Elders!" he said then determined.  
Paige and Phoebe nodded, while Piper wasn't so sure about that. The things Odin had revealed earlier that evening, were still very clear in her mind. So she took her husband by the arm to stop him: "I don't think that's a good idea!"

°°°°°°°°°°

Merlin was completely absorbed by his papers. He had lost something in the way and needed to know what. Something in the legend, or in the prophecy, had been misinterpreted, but he could not find a clue, and that made him very nervous.  
Merlin was a wise man, with a lot of power, in a time in which wise men were considered to be dangerous, and magic was found devilish. But he had played the game very well, and had found himself as being the best advisor of the king. It had not been easy, actually. It had taken him years to help the legend be fulfilled and now... What if now he had made some mistake and had misunderstood the legend?  
Excalibur belongs to a pure soul, someone capable of discerning between evil and good and keep the balance. Someone with a noble and brave heart. Compassionate, kind, but just. The future king of Camelot. Only this man will be able to take the sword from the stone and no one else. The son of the dragon and the sun.  
Merlin scratched his head, thoughtful. He was pretty sure he had understand it well. Only one person would be capable of getting the sword... So many had tried before, but when the little child, Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, took it from the stone with his skinny arms... All the people bowed before the new king. Camelot had a future.  
Merlin sighed, looking at all the old papers, and shook his head. That prophecy... Was supposed to be stopped? This wise man, for the first time in his life, found himself in impasse, and he could not stand that. He hated the feeling of uncertainty. Not knowing what to do was the worst thing that could happen to someone like him. He slammed his fist on the table, and growled: "There must be a solution to this..." He grumbled, as he went to revise his old books again...

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Michael were sitting on a chair by the table with Lancelot, the rest of his family, and, of course, the other knight. They were all very silent, because sometimes, like now, it's a bit weird to talk to strangers.  
Lancelot began to feel sleepy, it had been a long day for him. So he stood up to fight the feeling of falling asleep any moment. "Chris, Mike", he looked at the respectively, "would you like something to drink?" He almost made a bow with two glasses in his hands, which caused that the glasses almost to sleep out of his fingers, but he managed to keep his hold on them. Michael started to laugh out loud, he needed to laugh and in that second he found the scene in front of him inedible funny. Chris could hold his laugh, luckily, even if he felt like laughing, too.  
For a couple of seconds the whole family just looked at them, quiet. Then Lancelot's cousin, the one who gave some of Lancelot's clothes to Chris and Michael, began to laugh too. A few seconds later, the whole family laughed, although they didn't even laugh about the glasses anymore. They were just having fun.  
Suddenly Chris stopped laughing. He sat there in silence, staring into the nothing. It was as if he would be in trance or something.  
"Chris?" Michael said still laughing, then he also didn't laugh anymore. "Chris? Chris!?!?!"  
With that Michael gained the attention of the whole family. Everyone looked at the strangers with a mixture of worry and interest, but not with fear.  
Michael grabbed Chris and started to shake him. But Chris still didn't wake up.  
"What is happening?" Lancelot asked.  
Michael didn't answer. He went to the kitchen, grabbed a pot, filled it with water and came back to the dining room. He threw all the water in Chris's face, but he was still in trance.  
"What is happening?!?" Lancelot asked again.  
Now Michael did answer: "I think... I don't know, I... I guess it's something magical. I ..."  
"What do you mean with 'something magical'? By God, don't tell me he's a witch!" Lancelot's uncle exclaimed jumping up.  
"NO!" Lancelot shouted at the man, who sank back to his chair. Michael looked scared from one to the other. He hadn't expected that reaction, because Lancelot was unimpressed by all that magic stuff... But on the other hand... 'DAMNED!' he cursed in his thoughts. How could he be so stupid to talk about magic like that.  
"We rescued them from a witch..." Lancelot said quickly.  
"That's true," Gawain agreed, "they were under a spell, seems there are some late effects... But don't worry he'll be fine soon. Actually we saw that a lot of times."  
Lancelot's uncle nodded, but added: "Oh yes... I forgot that this stuff is your daily business... BUT NOT IN MY HOUSE!" With this he stood up and left the room.

°°°°°°°°°°

Merlin closed the old book carefully. 'That could work,' he thought, scratching his chin. He went over to the table to pick up some candles. Then he walked to the cage where he had put in that demon, before he had vanquished him a few weeks ago. He placed the candles in a circle at the inner rim of the cage and lit them. Then he closed the cage and whispered a spell.  
_"Magic so great and wise,  
Send me the stranger's spirit through the skies,  
Send his soul to this place at this time,  
make him answer the questions of mine."_  
First nothing happened but then there was some wind in his laboratory, even if all doors and windows were closed. Then, in a swirling light, appeared a spirit in the cage.  
"WHAT CRAP IS THAT?" Chris asked angry, trying to get out. But he couldn't. Then he noticed that he actually was a spirit. "What the hell have you done to me?"  
Merlin looked at him scared: "Oh holy father... I knew he is in company with the devil..."  
"What?" Chris looked at the old man confused. "Who are you?" he asked then a lot calmer. His Elder-senses were still working and he could feel the man's fear.  
"Tze... I called for him to answer my questions and now he's the one who asks me..." Merlin mumbled.  
Chris sighed: "Hey... you summoned me, right? So if you tell me who you are and why you did it, then we could get through this really a lot faster..."  
The sorcerer turned to him: "I'm Merlin, and I called for you to answer me some questions about the legend from the trees."  
The eyes of the Elder-witch grew wide: "Merlin? So you know King Arthur... Oh man, you... you have to warn him! There is someone after his sword!"  
Merlin grinned: "Yes, you!"  
"WHAT?" Chris exclaimed shocked. "No... never... I, I just heard them talking, that girl and an Elder called Gideon... have you ever heard of him?"  
Now the sorcerer's eyes grew wide: "You know about the Elders... no one knows about them... except me and two other witches I know personally... You..."  
"I'm one of them," Chris replied annoyed.  
"You're not!"  
"Yeah... not now... but in the future... that's where I came from... from the future... You're a legend there, do you know that?" the Elder-witch tried.  
Merlin's eyes sparkled as he grinned, but then he turned serious again: "Don't try to blind me with your words... I want to know if you're the one who can take the sword and if yes... if you want to take it away from my king!"  
"What?" Chris exclaimed frustrated. What was this freaky man talking about? He didn't mean... "Excalibur? No... I'm really not the one able to take it, surely not..." Chris began to laugh now. That was so crazy.  
Merlin frowned again, but then he saw how Chris's spirit began to fade. "No," he yelled, "I'm not finished yet!"  
Chris could feel how he was pulled back to his body. One last time he turned to Merlin: "PLEASE!" he screamed. "WARN THE KING! HE SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE AN EYE ON HIS SWORD!"  
Then the spirit was gone. Merlin sighed. Now he knew even less than before. Could he trust that spirit? But why should he warn him about a danger to the king? He sighed, he had to talk to Arthur.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris just felt like he was drowning, drowning in white light. Then he felt that his face was wet, which intensified the feeling.  
"Chris... CHRIS!" That was Michael's voice. He heard him.  
"Mickey...?" he whispered while slowly opening his eyes. Then he felt a tight hug.  
"Thanks God, you're alright," Michael mumbled relieved. Then he let go off him and began checking if he was really fine.  
Meanwhile Chris saw the others standing around him, looking kind of worried. "What happened?" he asked, feeling that his voice was still weak.  
"You were kind of absent for a moment," Lancelot's cousin answered, but the knight stopped her.  
Then he turned to Chris: "I think it's time for you to take a rest. He pulled the Elder-witch up and led him upstairs to the guestroom which he should share with Michael and the two knights. It was only small but enough for one night.  
Lancelot made Chris sit down on one of the beds and sat down on the other one. "So... what happened?" he asked.  
Chris sighed, while Michael also entered looking at him, questioning. "I don't know... Merlin summoned my spirit or something."  
"MERLIN?" Michael exclaimed. And then thought: 'Yeah, sure, if we have Arthur and Lancelot, we also need a Merlin.'  
"Are you sure that it was him? I mean, you didn't meet him before, did you?" the knight asked.  
"No I didn't," Chris answered, "but yes, it was him, I was able to sense him."  
"Sense?"  
Chris blushed: "Let's say I can feel if the intentions of a magical being are good or evil. I feel if they are afraid or angry or... if they're lying..."  
"Oh... ok...I guess I understand," the knight interrupted him, now blushing on his own. Meanwhile Michael sat down next to his friend.  
After a moment of silence Chris asked: "Do you know about a legend of the trees?"

°°°°°°°°°°

"But we need to tell them," Phoebe said, while her sister and brother in law were still discussing.  
Piper sighed: "Didn't you hear what Odin had said... They wanted to erase his existence."  
"Yeah, that's true, but now he's one of them. And according to the same Odin, they need him! And we need him too. So we should work together on this, don't you think?"  
"That's what I said," Leo added dryly. He was tired of fighting with his wife.  
Piper sighed: "I still don't like it... but ok, you may be right..."  
Leo nodded, kissed her cheek and orbed back to the Elders. Piper followed his orbing lights with her eyes, then sighed.  
"You will not lose Chris, don't worry?" Phoebe said suddenly and hugged her sister.  
"What?" the oldest charmed one asked confused.  
Phoebe grinned: "Oh come on, I don't need my empathy to know how you feel... you're afraid that you could lose Chris to them like you once lost Leo... But that won't happen, never ever..."  
"I hope you're right," Piper muttered with a sigh.

°°°°°°°°°°

Steve was yawning, more and more as time passed. Nicki and Tom kept looking at him, trying to make him paying more attention to the movie and keep him awake, but he was clearly bored and pissed off. It had not been the best birthday in his life...  
"Have you seen that, Stevie??" Nicki asked, attracting his attention to the movie. "Poor Arthur... his own son wants to kill him."  
Steve sighed: "This movie is never-ending, Nicki... I don't plan to stay all the night awake. It's evident that she's not gonna come now, so..."  
"And hey, did you notice Lancelot's regret in his eyes? He has done something he does not like, but he loves the king, he's his best friend... I imagine how he feels..." Tom said.  
Steve rolled his eyes: "Come on, guys, I don't think you are really enjoying this, are you??"  
Nicki and Tom exchanged looks, and Steve shook his head: "Stop it, ok?? I am fine. Just a little angry, but everything will be ok tomorrow. I guess I am pissed off, that's all. I expected this day to be different."  
Nicki wrapped him with her arms, understanding, and kissed him on the cheek: "Honey, I know what you mean. I was thinking about something that could cheer you up, anyway..." She looked at Tom significantly, and this stood up and went to the phone while Nicki kept talking with Steve, keeping him distracted. He dialled the number of Chris's mobile phone but no one answered. He frowned, and dialled the number of the Charmed Ones.

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca was talking with Angela, trying to distract her from her worries, when the phone rang. She rose and picked it up: "Hello??"  
Pause.  
"Tom?" She looked to Angela, as she listened attentively. Angela had heard the name, and thought that probably that boy had some news about her husband and Chris, but...  
"Oh... I see... Yeah, no... We did not forget anything, Tom. We have some... problems," Bianca explained, as she kept looking worriedly at Angela. "Well, yeah... Chris has disappeared. With Mike. We can't sense them, but... No, no, don't worry, ok?? I guess they're ok, something's wrong, but... I think they are fine. No, don't tell him, it's ok."  
Pause.  
Bianca sighed sadly: "I am really sorry that we can't come... Just tell them that we are having some little demonic problems, nothing really important, but you know, we can not overlook them. Ok... Good night, Tom... And sorry..."  
She hung up again, and turned to Angela, who was looking at her expectantly: "It was Tom, one of our friends, another teacher at the school."  
"Oh, I know. Another witch," Angela said in a way that made Bianca feel bad. Angela rectified immediately. "Oh, I don't mean... I mean that... Ok, I am just trying to adjust to it, sorry if my comment was too rude," she apologised.  
Bianca put her hand on her knee, understanding: "Don't worry, Angy, I know... and I understand... Would you like a cup of tea?"  
The woman shrugged timidly: "Well... Actually I would prefer some coffee. It makes me feel better. Even though it could seem the contrary. I can drink it and feel relaxed."  
Bianca nodded with a weak smile and went to the kitchen, leaving Angela submerged in her own worries and thoughts, as she fixed her eyes on the three children, one of whom was playing with his toys, more calmed now, while the two babies slept profoundly.

°°°°°°°°°°

In the attic, they had heard the phone but they decided to ignore it. They had really more important problems to deal with at the moment.  
Cole sighed as he looked closer at the time scale: 999... That was pretty scary. A bad year. Cole remembered that the Charmed Ones had already been in the Middle Ages before, and they had been almost killed, hanged, because they were witches.  
But the fact that Chris was in the year 999 was even more scary... Witches in that year were the worst thing to find, taking into account that 999 could be seen upside down and then it would be 666... The cursed number of the beast.  
"Well, I don't know what you think about this, guys, but the worst thing to do now is discuss if the Elders will take Chris away from his family, when probably he and Mike must be in a very tight corner, and we don't even know how to bring him back from there. I guess the Middle Ages is not the best age to live," Paige said, seeing how Phoebe nodded in agreement.  
"There must be a way to get there..."  
"Do you really wanna go there, Phoebe?" Cole asked, raising his eyes from the paper.  
Piper stared at her, wonderingly, and she shrugged: "Well, we need to do something."  
Cole half-smiled, sarcastic: "You don't believe I am going to let you go, after the danger in which you were last time you travelled to that time. You could have died."  
Paige frowned: "What are you talking about? I thought that I had been the only one who had ever travelled to the Middle Ages," she said, lost.  
Phoebe smiled sadly: "No, sweetie.. We have also been there; it was no long before Prue..."  
"Before she died," Piper cut her off dryly, "it was a weird experience... But at least it's an experience, and we know what is awaiting for us there."  
Cole was frowning now: "You have been in the Middle Ages too, Paige?"  
She nodded: "Oh, yeah, I was like an evil queen, or something like that."  
Piper clapped her hands: "Ok, focus, focus... We are rambling now. We'll have time for fairy tales later. Now... back to topic! I also agree with Phoebe. We three can go there and bring them back. As we did last time."  
Cole shook his head: "The spell you used opened the portal in the time that needed to be fixed, because your ancestors were calling you, somehow. If we do that, you could end up anywhere. And the Middle Ages are very long, you are not ready for any moment. Not for 999."  
Phoebe frowned: "What's about 999??" she asked, concerned.  
Cole looked at them one by one. "It was a time full of prophecies and prodigies... A time not really good for witches," he said in a soft voice.

°°°°°°°°°°

Michael looked from Lancelot to Chris and back. The two man were facing each other silently. Then the knight sighed. "Ok," he said, "even if I don't know why I trust you..." He sighed again: "I don't know much, only what Merlin let slip once... The legend of the trees is a kind of addition to the legend about the sword... It says that one day a person will come, capable of taking the sword and..."  
"Excalibur?" Michael exclaimed.  
Lancelot nodded: "The legend is talking about that person as someone who will save whole Camelot... But Merlin thinks that this a wrong interpretation because there could only be one owner, and that's the king... And now that you said that this Gideon is after the sword..."  
Chris nodded looking down to his feet. That was all so weird... For a second he wished his brother would be there, and smiled about that thought. But nevertheless Wyatt was the owner of the sword in his time, maybe he would know what to do... At least, one thing was clear: Chris needed to go to Camelot and help the king. But he had to be careful. He had to be careful that Gideon never saw his face.  
"From where do you know Gideon?" Chris asked then.  
The knight smiled: "I don't... That's just another thing Merlin had mentioned when he was to distracted to realise what he had said..." He made a break looking at Chris intensely. Then he asked: "And you? Where are you from? Or better... from when?"  
"A little more than thousand years in your future," Michael said, before Chris could even open his mouth.  
Lancelot rose his eyebrows, but kept silent. Then he nodded.  
"We came form a town which is far away from here..." Chris added.  
"How far?" the knight asked. He was just curious.  
"Well..." Michael said, "you know the great water in the west?" When Lancelot nodded, he went on: "Cross it to the west till you reach land again and then you've got about half of the way..."  
"You're joking!" the knight exclaimed. "There is no land on the other side of the water."  
"There is," Chris said. Then he went over to the bag in which they had packed their own clothes and put out a picture. Then he went back and showed it to his new found friend.  
Lancelot took it and looked at it unbelieving. "What is that?" he asked a little scared. He saw Chris and a woman with a baby on it. But it wasn't a painting... still it was Chris like someone had banned a moment of his live. It was such a small little thing. It felt like paper but... How could Chris be there, so clearly, so detailed...?  
"That's a photo," Chris said. "That's me with my wife and child... that's where we live... I can not prove you that it's on the other side of the earth but... I guess you've never seen something like that, right? So... maybe you should just believe us."  
"That's amazing," Lancelot muttered. There were so much things on that photo which he had never seen before... So much little details... He couldn't stop staring at it.  
Suddenly Michael jumped up: "There is someone coming, I heard steps."  
Chris took the picture back into his bag quickly.  
Short after that Gawain entered the room, yawning. "Time to go to bed," he announced tiredly.  
Lancelot agreed: "Yeah, it was a long day, we really should sleep for a while." Chris nodded.  
So they all went to their beds... the knights sharing one, Chris and Michael the other one.  
Only a few moments later they could hear Lancelot and Gawain sleeping soundly. Michael kept staring at Chris who's eyes were fixed at the ceiling. "Do you think we'll return to our time?" he asked then.  
Chris turned his head: "Yeah... don't worry, we'll find a way."  
"After saving king Arthur...?"  
The Elder-witch shrugged: "Maybe..."

°°°°°°°°°°

"My king...! My king...!" Arthur was about to leave for his own bedrooms when he heard the sorcerer calling for him. So he stopped and turned around, returning to his thrown. "What is it Merlin that you are calling me so alarmed in this late hour?"  
"My king..." Merlin said again, taking a bow, "I've had a kind of vision of one of those men which escaped from your prison. He talked in weird ways but he told me to warn you that there is someone after Excalibur."  
Now Arthur rose one eyebrow suddenly tensed, but then he relaxed again: "Yes... him..."  
"No, I don't think so..." Merlin said. "Why should he warn you about himself? Maybe he isn't the one the legend talks about. Or the old interpretation was correct even if there couldn't be another owner of this sword... I don't know..."  
"Merlin, you're talking in riddles..." Arthur said annoyed. He was tired and just wanted to go to bed.  
"Just... my king, just keep an eye on your sword tonight... That's all I'm asking for." Merlin's voice was almost begging.  
Arthur sighed: "I promise my old friend, I promise."

°°°°°°°°°°

The night passed by quietly, and none of the guests and inhabitants of the house noticed the young intruder who spent all the time watching them outside. Amy had traced them and then she had orbed to the place where they were spending the night.  
She did not know very well how to start. It was going to be really hard, but she had to do it. She had to gain their trust in her again.  
While she watched, hid by the bushes, her mind travelled very far away... in the future, in her past... That day in which she had seen Chris for the first time, crying by his wife's body. As those images came to her mind, she started to feel bad about what she was going to do, but no... She had no choice.  
Gideon wanted the sword, and also them dead, and if he said that was the best for the world, he was probably right. She did not want all those things to happen again. She needed a good future in which she could live with her family, happily, and somehow, she had the feeling that if she helped that man, he would finally help her find her parents, and even destroy those double demons that had killed her family... At least he was an Elder, he should know what has to be done to save the greater good...  
Or not?? Because he had said that he knew where they were... Her heart hurt so much when she thought of them. Maybe if she had seen their bodies, she could have rest, but she hadn't. And that was killing her from inside. And now, she had to kill Chris and his friend to be able to rest, but...  
She shook her head. She would never rest. Sadness was growing inside of her in a weird way. She had never felt so bad about something she had to do. Actually she had never done that before. And that image of Chris, giving all, and losing all, and crying his heart out... She could not stand it. Why was she feeling that way? Wouldn't she be able to kill him? For her family? For the world?? She tried to shake those thoughts from her mind. Of course she had to. She had to do as he had said, and that was all. Chris was a danger for the world.  
Suddenly a voice made her stop her stream of thoughts. She raised her head and held her breath back.  
"Did the horses drink enough?" Gawain asked to a young boy who was at that moment garnishing the animals.  
The child nodded: "Yes Sir."  
"And food, did you put enough food?"  
The child nodded again, and Gawain grumbled satisfied. At that moment three more people came out of the house.  
"Forgive my uncle, Sir Chris. He's a little bit old-fashioned," said Sir Lancelot's voice.  
Chris was coming behind him, laughing, and he stroke the child's hair as he passed by him. Michael followed them, shaking his head and smiling.  
"Stop calling me Sir Chris, please... Sir Lancelot."  
Lancelot burst into laughter, and then touched the horse to see if everything was ok. He caressed his mouth and between his eyes, and whispered something to his ears, making the horse move a little bit, happy.  
"You need to get used to that appellative, Chris," he smiled. "Not only my family will call you like that in this time."  
Michael approached the horse and caressed him too. "But it was really weird to hear them calling us like that this morning," he said.  
Lancelot smiled and nodded, but at that moment Gawain, who was behind a horse, and they hadn't noticed, appeared: "Why is it so weird, Lancelot? Because they are peasants pretending to be knights?"  
Laughters stopped, and Lancelot frowned: "They're not peasants. And I know you don't really mind what they are, so don't scare them more than they already are."  
Gawain looked in Chris's and Michael's eyes for a minute, and then grinned, clapping his hand on the back of the horse: "Come on, knights, the king is waiting for you. And after that, he jumped on the horse, followed by the others, who did the same.  
"Let's go before my uncle comes and insists on lending each of you a horse," he whispered in Chris's ear. "He really wants to test you."  
"And your retinue?" Michael asked when he noticed that they didn't show up till now.  
The knight smiled: "Don't worry... They will follow us later, but we're faster without them."  
Amy had watched that entire scene in silence, holding her breath. The moment had come. She had to get them for her master, but maybe she could think of some way to convince him not to kill them straight away. Maybe she could still save that amazing young man and his friend...

°°°°°°°°°°

"Alright..." Cole said then, "if you don't mind I'll check the book." He was really frustrated that his wife and her sisters wanted to go to the middle age again. He know it was just too risky.  
Meanwhile the sisters were still discussing. "So, what if the Elders don't agree, if they don't help us to the past..." Piper said then, "I mean, Leo said they have closed all the portals."  
"Yeah... That's true... maybe we could write a spell," Phoebe suggested.  
"That would be a start," Paige replied and enthusiastically grasped pen and paper.  
"Well... what we need is something that will bring us to Chris... well... our Chris... that person from the future that is now in the past... hell... that's kind of complicated..." Piper sighed.  
"Hey girls!" Cole yelled all of a sudden. "Look at this!" He pointed at the book. The sisters went over to him to read the entry he had found.  
_"When one part is lost again in the past - the future will be saved at last."_  
"Wyatt's handwriting," Piper muttered.  
"Yeah," Cole said, "and these lines are new... that hadn't been here before his last visit..."  
"There is a spell," Paige said, and before the others could say anything to stop her, she read it out loud.  
_"Calling to the spirits of times,  
To come to us to explain.  
Calling for answers with these lines,  
So that knowledge we will gain."_  
In the same moment Paige had ended, orbing lights filled the attic. Seconds later they all stared into the smiling face of Wyatt... the 26-years-old Wyatt!  
"Hey family," he said.  
"What the...?" Piper wanted to ask what that should be, while the others were too shocked by that sight.  
But Wyatt just went on talking. "Don't worry, this is just a magical message, I'm not really here," he said smiling.

* * *

_(Chapter 4 written by Chrissy.W.x, Darklighter, Belén and charmedfreak)  
_


	5. Chapter 5

**A Charmed Story - Part Ten:  
An Elder's Tale  
Chapter 5**

In the attic everyone stared at Wyatt with mouth wide open, while he just went on talking.  
"I just wanted to make sure that you don't do anything stupid. I know you want to go to the past to bring back Chris and Mickey... but..." He made a break and sighed, then he went on: "They are not in danger! Nothing will happen to them. But you could get hurt when you go there. That's why my Chris told me to leave this message when I'm here in the past anyway... Oh, I know you wanna know how this works, but I guess it wouldn't be good if I tell you... you know, future consequences!" He chuckled, while the others watched the 'message' shocked. "LEO!" Piper exclaimed, still eyeing the image of her son.  
But Wyatt just went on: "Don't worry about Chris, mom. Everything is alright... He is in the past to learn something very important about himself."  
At that moment Leo orbed in and immediately was frozen in shock, when he saw his adult son... again.  
Now Wyatt looked really serious: "Only if Chris finds out the truth, the future will be save forever. So please, let him do it... If it's done he'll be back healthy, I promise... Just don't go to the past and distract him..." With those words the image of Wyatt began to get transparent and at least faded away.  
Leo, still shocked went over to his wife and hugged her, looking at the others for an explanation.  
"Jesus," Paige muttered. "Magic seems to grow a lot in the future... how has he done that?"  
No one answered for a while, because all the available minds in the attic at that moment were trying to find an explanation for it.  
Finally Leo, who was still hugging Piper, broke the silent: "Was that Wyatt?? I mean..."  
Cole interrupted him: "Only like a picture of him, a record... Something like a video in three dimensions, to make it clear."  
Leo nodded, looking at the spot where his son had been a moment before. Then he swallowed: "But he could hear us? Could we talk with him?"  
His wife shook her head, looking him in the eyes: "No, it was just this message playing out... But it was so real... For a moment I thought he was back." Her eyes became a bit watery at that thought. She had been missing the adult version of her oldest son so much... And now it was as if he had just been there, but she could not hug him...  
Suddenly she felt Paige's hand on her shoulder: "He's fine, Piper. And you heard him..." She sighed. "Chris is fine. Maybe we should just wait and see... He'll be back in due time."  
Piper and Leo looked at her a little annoyed, but they knew she was right, because Wyatt had said it very clear. Phoebe took refuge in Cole's arms, thoughtful, and looked at the rest, waiting for a reaction or some kind of decision.  
Finally Leo nodded, tiredly: "I guess you're right... I will go and tell the other Elders that they should stop looking for him, and..."  
"Wait, Leo," Piper took his hand tightly, "we are not gonna wait without doing anything for him, are we?"  
Leo looked at her indecisive, and then turned to the others, but they just shrugged or shook their heads, so he went back to his wife: "You heard him... It's important not to do anything..."  
Piper's countenance adopted a furious expression: "Fine. Then, you tell Bianca and Angy about it. You all, do it." Then she shook her head, almost breaking down. "I can't believe you really wanna leave him alone."  
"Piper..." Paige said, but she had left abruptly heading to her room. After a moment, they heard the strong thud of the closing door.  
Leo looked at them a bit ashamed, and Cole sighed, as the two sisters looked at each other, understanding. That was the stubborn Piper. The determined one. They knew it was almost impossible for her to stay behind when her family was in danger.  
Phoebe separated herself from Cole, and walked to the door: "I am gonna talk with her... Paige, sweetie, maybe you should call Kyle because of your date. We can't do anything else here." After that, she disappeared in the stairs.

°°°°°°°°°°

"It's amazing..." Angela muttered as she sipped from her cup, staring at Wyatt. Bianca turned to her wonderingly. "This kid... He's just a little boy, with so much power... "  
Bianca nodded. "It's not easy for them either. The first thing they have to learn is that they should not be using their powers in front of others, and exposing them."  
Angela nodded silently, without taking her eyes away from the blonde kid: "But he seems to be so normal..."  
Bianca smiled: "They are normal, Angy. You have seen it."  
The girl nodded: "I know. But it's still fascinating."  
Wyatt kept playing with the toys he had in front of him; the little cars that he loved over all the other games, the same with which he used to play with Chris when he was home. He was mumbling something incoherent as he played, as if he was talking with some kind of imaginary friends.  
"Does he really have that connection with Chris?" Bianca nodded again. "Is it like empathy?"  
This time, Bianca chuckled softly: "Something like that... yes. Even though empathy is also magic in this family... But yeah. It's more like the kind of empathy that exists between twins, but stronger. And something else..."  
Angela frowned, looking at her. She'd never understand all that. She had so much more questions. "And what about Christopher? Has he the same powers? And what about Hope?"  
Bianca smiled the first honest smile since Chris and Michael had disappeared. It was refreshing somehow. And she realised the more they got to know each other, the more Angela showed that same almost child-like curiosity like her husband when it comes to magic. So she honestly explained: "Well... we don't know yet what powers they will have. Well, we know a little from when their future versions had been here, but the babies haven't developed any kind of power yet.. as far as we know. You know that's something that comes with growing up."  
Angela nodded again. Then she looked thoughtful at the little crib where Hope was sleeping in. "It's a amazing how fast she has grown..."  
Now Bianca looked at her daughter, too, and nodded with a sigh: "Thanks God she did... She was so small when she was born, but she caught up with Christopher really quickly. I'm glad she's fine after all that had happened." Angela nodded understanding. And for a moment they both kept silent, just watching the children.  
Suddenly, Wyatt started to cry holding his arm in pain. "Chris... it hurts lot..." he said once and again.  
Bianca rushed to him, shocked, as well as Angela: "What happened, Wyatt??"  
"It hurts... lot..." he said, crying more and more.  
Angela looked at her as Bianca removed his little t-shirt and see what was wrong with him. It could not be Chris. He could not contact with him... Or could he?

°°°°°°°°°°

Michael was moving uncomfortable on the saddle. He was not used to riding, and this was the second time in two days. He's back would never forgive him.  
Chris and Lancelot, who were riding behind them, smiled noticing his movements, but said nothing to him. Chris himself felt some pain, but he had other things to think about. And he was so concentrated, that he did not notice when the whistling arrow was shot until it was firmly stuck in his shoulder.  
Chris cried in pain, and fell from the horse, as Lancelot tried to control the animal, that had freaked out.  
"What is...?" Gawain got off his horse sword in hand, and looked for the attacker.  
Michael fell off the horse in his attempt to dismount and go with his friend, but he crawled up to him as quickly as possible. "Chris!" he exclaimed, taking his trembling hand between his.  
"The arrow reached only his shoulder, he'll be ok," Lancelot said, tearing a piece of his own shirt to cover the injury. "But we have to take the arrow out first," he added, grabbing his arm strongly.  
"No..." Chris gasped. He locked Michael's eyes with his. "Don't..."  
Gawain had run towards the trees, but there was no one there. "This is the devil's work, I knew we were putting our damned heads in the lion's mouth," he grumbled. After looking for a while, he decided to go back, but when he turned, he could see how the girl they had met before appeared magically by the other's side.  
He ran to her furious: "You little witch, your days are done!" Lancelot and Michael raised their eyes to meet the girl's, who knelt down by Chris, and put her hand on his arm ready to orb with him. But before they could react, Gawain arrived and grabbed her by the neck, pressing his sword against her stomach.  
"I would not do it, if I were you." Amy said calmly.  
Chris was gasping in pain on the ground, very pale. "Go..." he said, sweating.  
Michael shook his head: "I am not gonna go anywhere, Chris."  
Then he looked at Lancelot, who was asking the girl: "Why aren't we supposed to do so? We'd end all our problems." Gawain pressed her neck, making her choke, but suddenly Michael understood.  
He looked at Chris in horror: "Oh, my God... it's a darklighter arrow..." Chris swallowed, closing his eyes in the attempt to keep his pain under control. Michael turned to Lancelot and Gawain: "He needs a whitelighter, or otherwise he'll die."  
Gawain frowned but released the girl, who fell on the ground coughing soundly. "What is that?" he asked.  
"Something like..." Michael started, but then he stopped, he could not betray his friend telling Gawain what they were.  
"A healer," Lancelot said gravely, understanding. Then took Chris's hand: "Can you not heal yourself?" He whispered to his ear.  
Chris shook his head painfully, and swallowed, feeling the sweat covering all his body as the poison gained ground rapidly in his veins. "Not this... I... I am screwed." he mumbled, trembling.  
Michael pressed his hand softly: "No, everything's gonna be ok."  
"And you still want me to leave her alive?" Gawain exclaimed, ready to use his sword against Amy, who raised her eyes and smirked.  
"Do it and he dies."  
The three men looked at her wonderingly, until Michael remembered: "She is... she's a whitelighter."  
Lancelot could not understand a word of what was going on, but if she was what Chris needed, then he had to force her to save his new friend. He went to her and ragged her to Chris: "Heal him. Now."  
Amy smirked even wider.  
"He must come with me. Both of them. It's his only chance. Kill me and you won't find a soul in this damned age that can save him."  
"Nonsense," Gawain said, impatiently, but Lancelot stopped his movement again.  
"Don't do anything stupid, Gawain," he said gravely. Then looked at her.  
"She's right. We have to go with her," Michael said, interrupting him.  
But Chris pressed his hand. "No..." he gasped. "We can't go..."  
Amy rolled her eyes, even if her feelings were somehow different: "Middle Age and a martyr, how appropriate."  
Lancelot stung his look on her, warningly. "Hold your tongue, witch," he said, but Michael pushed him aside.  
"Please... We need to go with her. He doesn't have much time left."  
Chris opened his mouth to say something, but he was too weak. He could not go with her... Gideon... But when he tried to say something again, he was already in the middle of black orbs, together with Amy and Michael.  
Lancelot and Gawain were left alone in the middle of the forest, feeling helpless. Gawain swore constantly until his friend stopped him: "We need to go to the king, protect him and the sword. Chris was doing all this for him, we have to help him finish his job."  
Gawain nodded and went to his horse, but Lancelot looked back for a minute. Had he done the right thing? Would he see Chris again? Would he survive?? Lancelot swallowed. He could not abandon him, but the king neither... What should he do? With these thoughts he jumped on the horse again, and resumed his journey behind Gawain.

°°°°°°°°°°

When they materialised, Chris was surprised that they weren't in that cave again. They were still somewhere in the woods. He tried to get away from that girl, but the poison was infecting him too fast. He felt dizzy and weak.  
"Everything will be alright," he heard Michael say. Chris still felt his hand holding his own tightly. But he also felt that he was losing it. If they wouldn't save him fast, it would be too late.  
Michael looked at the girl who was observing her surroundings with fearful eyes. She looked so young. Michael hadn't noticed that before but she couldn't be older than 15. But they hadn't time for that. "HELP HIM DAMNED!" he yelled.  
Amy turned around startled. Then she knelt down next to Chris and put her hands over his wound.  
Chris could feel the warmth of the healing, even if it was much more weaker than usual. But it was enough to save him, even if it took a really long time.  
When it was done Chris sat up. He looked at the girl with narrowed eyes. "Why have you done this?" he asked. "Why first shot me and then save me?"  
But the girl just looked at him, completely shocked and scared to death. "You... you're... you're an Elder..." she mumbled. She had felt it while healing him.  
Michael looked confused from one to the other, while Chris said dryly: "That doesn't answer my question."  
The girl sank back down on her butt as her eyes were welling up in tears: "Oh my God... I nearly killed an Elder..." she sobbed. "How could he do that to me?"  
Now Chris and Michael frowned. The Elder-witch could sense that her confusion was real.  
"He... He said you're evil... He said you have to die and the sword must be destroyed... How can he do that? ... He's an Elder, too!!!" Amy cried desperate. She couldn't believe that he had lied to her... Gideon was an Elder, Elders don't lie.  
Chris and Michael exchanged a quick look. Meanwhile Amy had stood up and stepped backwards. "I'm... I'm sorry..." she said and run away.  
Chris followed her with his eyes a moment. Then orbed right in front of her, so that Amy ran straight into his arms.  
"Hey, hey... not so fast," he said. "I need you to explain me what happened... WHO are you?"  
Amy looked at him, her eyes red and tired. She was shivering. Then she broke down to his arms and cried.

°°°°°°°°°°

When Tom returned from the phone, he looked a little sad at Nicki. "They can't come," he said.  
"Who?" Steve asked confused.  
Meanwhile Nicki looked at the man worried: "Why?"  
Tom sighed: "Bianca said, that Chris is... involved in a demon-problem. But nothing we should worry about."  
"Oh," she sighed. She had hoped that they would came to visit them this evening. Steve and Chris turned to be good friends again, lately. It had took a while, for Steve to overcome the fact, that Chris was making deals with the source, but he also knew that Belthazor had saved Tom and the babies. So Steve had finally decided to accept it. Therefore Nicki had hoped the couple would come and cheer Steve up.  
"What?" Steve asked still confused. "Did you plan a kind of surprise-party, or what?"  
Nicki shrugged as Tom said: "We just wanted you to have a birthday to remember, and not only because of the fact that your mom won't come."  
Now Steve sighed. "Thanks," he said. He realised how much they tried to help him and he thought it would be wrong to spoil that. Even more he felt already guilty for not 'enjoying' the dvd with them. He had to accept that his mother will not be able to come down from that great Elder-land. Of course he was angry about that, but that was no reason to live out his frustrations in front of his friends... That was simply not fair. "So," he said with a smile, "will we now see the rest of that movie, or what?"

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris had been kind of unsure what to do. He had felt that her tears had been real. He had felt her confusion. So he had tried to calm her down.  
After a while she relaxed but was still afraid of what Chris could do to her. After all, she had tried to kill him.  
"Will you now tell me what happened?" Chris asked softly.  
Fearful looking at him, she nodded: "I don't know how I came here. I was in that forest where my parents died... or at least, where the police said that they died. Then I was here. I met Gideon who is an Elder and he told me he would know why I'm here. He said he would help me to find them."  
"He told you, you're parents are still alive?" Michael, asked. He began to feel sorry for that girl.  
"He said he would know where they are. And he said, he would tell me how to find them, when I help him to stop a big evil which is about to rise."  
"And he told you that evil was me?" Chris asked.  
She shook her head: "Not exactly... he said, that this evil will take the sword and then destroy the world. Therefore he wanted to destroy the sword before it could get it. And he said you're the only one capable of crossing his plans... and he... he said that you're evil, too..."  
"And you believe him?" Michael asked, not understanding how someone could think about Chris like that.  
Amy nodded still looking at Chris: "I saw you once... When the people in grey, those who I though had killed my parents, when they imprisoned us all... They called for me too, but I escaped them. And then I saw you... I saw that you love a demon, and that you were working with the source."  
Chris rolled his eyes. "Bianca isn't a demon nor is she evil..." he snapped.  
"I'm sorry," she muttered.  
"Never mind," he added smiling. He didn't mean to react like that, but he was so tired of explaining all that.  
"Believe me," she suddenly said, "I never wanted to kill someone, I was raised good... My father was half demon, half darklighter, yes. But he was never living that..."  
"So, why didn't you just run away, from Gideon?" Michael asked.  
"Because he told me, to tell the other Elders who I am. He told me that they would kill me, if they would know. He said that's why my parents hid me from them all the 14 we had together... until they died."  
Chris sighed again: "That's not true, that won't happen... no one will kill you, don't worry." Then he added: "So you haven't used your powers that much before... I noticed that you're kind of insecure with the healing."  
She nodded: "Gideon taught me how to use my powers, but only a little." Then tears ran down her face again. "I'm so sorry for all I've done..." she sobbed.  
Chris hugged her, feeling that she told them the truth. He really felt pity for her. "Don't worry," he whispered to her ear. "First we save the king and then we'll return... I promise no one will hurt you... And if you like... I guess there is surly some space for you at the magic school."  
Now Amy looked up again. She had heard of that place before. Some demons had talked about it in that cave and from what she knew it must be a really cool place. She smiled. She couldn't believe that this Chris was so kind to her. "Couldn't you just fight against that Gideon?" she asked.  
Chris sighed: "No... he can't see me. If he sees my face the whole universe will collapse... everything would be torn apart if he meets me before the right time... We have to find another way to stop him. But first we need to go to Camelot."

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca was scared when she saw that there was nothing wrong with Wyatt's shoulder. Quickly she checked the baby, but baby-Chris was fine, too.  
"Could he... could Chris be..." Angela didn't know how to say it.  
Bianca swallowed: "I don't know, I really don't know."  
Meanwhile Wyatt calmed down in her arms. Then suddenly he looked at the Phoenix and smiled: "Wanna play with my cars."  
"And you shoulder? Isn't it hurting anymore?"  
Wyatt shook his head energetically. Bianca hugged him close for a moment, relieved somehow, but also scared. Then she put the boy back to the ground and Wyatt went back to play.  
The Phoenix hid her face in his hands, shaking it slightly.  
"Hey," Angela said, hugging her, "don't worry... Michael taught me to believe that everything will be fine... And Chris is the best right? I'm sure he's fine, and Mickey too."  
Bianca nodded. Then she turned to the woman next to her with a weak smile. "And the sisters told me that I should cheer up YOU..." she chuckled.  
Angela smiled: "I guess now I could need a cup of tea, what do you think?"  
Bianca smiled back, a little relieved: "Sounds good..."

°°°°°°°°°°

"What did they tell you?" Gawain asked after a while. They were still riding, but if nothing went wrong they would reach Camelot in about two hours. Actually they could try to reach it faster, but they didn't want to wear out their horses.  
"What do you mean?" Lancelot asked back, even if he had a good idea of what his fellow was taking about.  
"Those two men... I'm sure they told you something. Something about magic I guess. And your leg... it isn't bothering you anymore."  
Lancelot sighed: "I don't think I should share all their secrets with you... A few things you wouldn't believe anyway."  
"But you do?"  
"I don't know... But as long as I can't prove the opposite." Gawain nodded and for a while they went on riding in silent.  
Then suddenly the horses turned uneasy. "What...?" Gawain asked. But Lancelot had already recognised them.  
"Look!" he said and pointed at a spot a few yards in front of them. There sat three persons in the grass besides the road. Chris, Mike and that girl.  
"And now?" Gawain asked, as the three persons rose.  
Lancelot jumped up from his horse: "Stay here, I'll talk to them." Then he went over to the three, leaving the grumbling Gawain behind.  
Chris smiled widely when the knight went nearer and when he reached them he hugged him.  
"I'm glad to see that you're fine," Lancelot said.  
Chris nodded: "Yeah... me too."  
"What about her?" the knight said then, looking at the girl in an unfriendly way.  
Chris smiled, "We can trust her. Don't worry. She isn't evil, she was just blinded by lies from that Gideon. Lies about me, lies about the sword, even lies about her own family. And because he's an Elder, she believed him," he answered, putting his hand on her shoulder comfortingly.  
Lancelot frowned, but before he had the chance to answer, Gawain said: "She's a witch." And his eyes pierced Chris, meaning 'And you too, and I'm starting to be tired of this.'  
Lancelot looked at him warningly, but then turned to his two new friends and the girl, serious at the beginning, and drawing a gentle smile after a while: "I don't know why, but if you trust her, I guess I can trust her too."  
Chris grinned grateful, even if he himself was still wondering why he should trust that girl who had almost sold them first and killed him later. But she smiled thankful at him, with her eyes still red, and he understood why he was doing that.  
Michael took a step forward: "Sir Lancelot, you took the right decision. Trust Chris however weird the things he does seem to be. He is always right!"  
Chris laughed at this statement, as Amy lowered her eyes ashamed. Lancelot simply nodded very slightly and smiled, as Gawain growled again, annoyed.  
"Come, on the horse," he said, patting the animal's back.  
They had to arrive in Camelot as soon as possible. Michael jumped on Gawain's horse, amazed by the ability he had already acquired in doing that, but Chris looked at the girl and then at Lancelot. "How are we supposed to go there, altogether?"  
The two knights looked at each other, not knowing what to say, but the girl interrupted them: "I should not go, or he will suspect..."  
"Yeah, but we can't leave you behind," Michael said, "because if Gideon finds out that you betrayed him, he'll kill you." Chris nodded.  
"Well," Lancelot said, "I know a few places where she would be safe, but only if I would bring her... "  
"No," Chris interrupted him, "we don't have time for such things." Then he turned to Amy: "Can you cloak yourself? Take over the appearance of one of Lancelot's followers?"  
Amy sighed and lowered her eyes to her feet: "I don't know... I never did that before."  
Chris sighed. Then he looked at Gawain, observing his reactions while he said to the girl: "Then I will do it for you."  
"I knew you're a witch too!" The knight stated with a mixture of anger and annoyance.  
"No, he's not!" Amy exclaimed defiantly. "He's one of the highest magical beings in this world! He's..."  
"AMY!" Michael yelled at her angry, to stop her.  
Chris eyes were still locked into Gawain's and when the Elder-witch spoke his voice was firm and calm: "Do you want to burn me now?"  
The knight returned his look seriously. Then he laughed: "Of course not!"

* * *

_(Chapter 5 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)  
_


	6. Chapter 6

**A Charmed Story - Part Ten:  
An Elder's Tale  
Chapter 6**

Merlin was in front of the lake, his arms spread-eagle, and his eyes closed. He was so concentrated that someone could have shouted in his ear and he would have remained like that.  
He was an old man, very old, older than many thought he could actually be. Probably there was no older man in the kingdom; but his strength was incomparable to most young men.  
He had been standing there the entire night, absorbed by his thoughts, in trance. The lake was calm, and there was no sign of any living being in the surroundings. Everything was dead-silent. But Merlin was communicating with someone else...  
He had the eyes closed, but he saw the lake, and the trees and the cave semi-covered by the waters, and he also saw the beautiful woman who was standing in the middle of the lake, like floating, and smiling at him.  
"Viviane..." Merlin said. "Tell me the secret... Open my eyes, so that I can clearly see the meaning of the prophecy."  
"Sometimes we have to walk blind in life. All in good time, my dearest and great Merlin," the kind and soft voice of the Dame of the Lake said.  
"But the kingdom is in danger, and it is absolutely necessary... No, it is imminent, that we decipher that prophecy correctly."  
"As I said, all will be shown in good time. You don't need to worry..."  
"The sword is meant to disappear from this place? Is it not supposed to belong to Arthur forever and until the end of days?"  
"No one lives forever, Merlin," was the laconic answer.  
Merlin sighed, trying to keep his concentration. "The legend said that... And it also said that no one else but the true possessor is meant to own and use Excalibur. Only this person, the one that took it out from the stone. No one else, because he is the only one capable of discerning between..."  
"...between good and evil, the only one capable of keeping the tip of the balance stable," she continued his stream of thoughts and words.  
Merlin looked her in the eyes: "And that was Arthur. Arthur took the sword from the others who yearn for the sword are false prophets. Evil incarnated those that wants to obtain Excalibur in order to use it in its own benefit, and subdue the people."  
Viviane simply nodded, with the kind and understanding smile still imprinted on her face.  
Then, Merlin sighed again: "But the prophecy of the trees, that one talks about someone who wants the sword... And these events, these ghosts and spirits I have talked to, they warned me about that. Or maybe they themselves want the sword... They are that evil, they must be that evil."  
Viviane kept staring at him, intensely. After a moment of silence, she said: "What does your heart tell you, Merlin?"  
The old man shook his head, but could not answer that question. He was so confused... However, the woman smiled widely: "I know your heart will lead you in the right direction. Trust what it tries to tell you, Merlin. The heart is wise. More than the mind."  
"But..."  
"Trust your heart, as you did with little Arthur... With little Lancelot..." The woman started to disappear in the middle of a whirlpool. Merlin was losing his concentration. He tried to stabilise his mind, but it did not work. The woman ended up disappearing in the lake.  
Merlin opened his eyes again, and blinked a couple of times, looking around. It was daytime. He had spent the entire night there... The water was calm as always, nothing moved in the woods... The sacred place was still respected by every creature.  
Merlin sighed once again: "Trust your heart... But what my heart says??"  
He shook his head as he started to walk away, tiredly, supporting himself on his stick. But he knew what his heart said. The face of that spirit warning him was still in his mind, and for some reason, he liked that boy. He had not had time to know him at all, but something in his expression reminded him of Arthur himself. His same eyes and complexion, the same kindness in his countenance.  
He walked away, submerged in his thoughts, heading to Camelot. Something big was going to happen, he had a feeling.

°°°°°°°°°°

Angela and Bianca sat side by side on the sofa, drinking the tea calmly, when Paige jumped down the stairs.  
"Anything new?" Angela asked.  
The witch-whitelighter hesitated a moment. Then she gestured to the stairs: "Well... Cole will explain that to you..." With that she went down the hallway.  
When the front door slammed shut, Angela looked at her friend confused. Bianca just shrugged.  
Then they heard again footsteps on the stairs and a moment later Cole appeared. He walked into the living room and sat down on the edge of the table.  
"Ok, what's going on?" Bianca asked.  
Her uncle sighed: "We... that means, me, Paige, Leo - who's talking to the others Elders by now - and Phoebe - who's convincing Piper... we decided that ... Well... we will not try to find them any longer."  
"WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?" both women exclaimed.  
Cole rose his hands to stop them so that he could go on with his explanation. "We had a... we found a spell," he tried.  
"A spell?" Angela asked.  
Cole nodded: "It activated a kind of magical 3D-video-message from future-Wyatt..."  
"Wyatt?" Bianca asked, feeling where this would lead to, while Angela just started at the witch confused.  
"Yes," Cole went on, "and he said that we shall not try to safe them, because with that actually we would risk their lives and ours, too." Bianca sighed, leaned back and closed her eyes.

°°°°°°°°°°

The horses were tired and they could not walk faster, since it had been impossible to accommodate all of them on them. Therefore, Michael had offered his place to Amy.  
Actually, Chris had, too, but Michael had insisted almost to the point of getting angry. When they had started to march again, Chris smiled understanding: Michael was walking now with his legs slightly separated, and a little bit bent forward. He would not say anything, but all his back seemed to hurt painfully. Chris shook his head, amused.  
Amy was looking at her hand, pensive: "Actually, I preferred the first body you gave me. That girl was really gorgeous."  
Chris startled at her voice, and then blushed, at the same time as Michael burst into laughter.  
"I am sorry, but those features would have been really suspicious here. Dark hair, dark skin, and those eyes..." Lancelot explained.  
Chris blushed even more: "It was the first appearance that came to my mind," he excused himself. Michael laughed louder, as well as Gawain.  
Lancelot simply smiled: "Well, at least I had the opportunity to see what your dame in the future is looking like..." He said, gently.  
Chris swallowed, looking at Amy, whose body was now that of a young man, skinny and not very tall, but somehow, attractive. Merely a teenager. "I guess the idea of the page was better." All of them laughed, even the girl, who was still feeling weird.  
After that, there was silence for a while, but finally Michael broke it again, turning to Gawain: "Is it true that all the knights of the Round Table are like brothers?"  
Gawain looked at Lancelot for a second, and then answered: "It's like everything else. There are very good friends and some of us are like brothers. But yes, symbolically we are all brothers, even the king."  
Michael nodded, and turned to Lancelot: "How long have you two been friends? Because you look really like good friends... And you are so different."  
Lancelot smiled as Gawain laughed. Then the oldest of the two knights talked: "I have known Lancelot since he was a kid and Merlin brought him here."  
"Merlin brought you?" Chris asked, curious about their stories.  
Lancelot nodded, suddenly sad: "Well, I was just a little kid..."  
"And you were kidnapped by the Dame of the Lake," Michael said abruptly, gaining a glare from Chris, and therefore shutting up.  
Lancelot shook his head: "Not exactly. No one kidnapped me, but we received a visit in the Languedoc from Merlin. He talked to my father, and said that I had to come here and be trained, because I was going to serve the greatest king in the world. He had had a vision about me, it seems. When he talked with the Dame of the Lake."  
"Have you seen her?" Michael asked, curious.  
He shook his head again: "No one but Merlin can. But we all trust her word, transmitted to us by Merlin."  
"It must have been very hard for you to come here, away from your family..." Amy muttered, who had been silent most of the time.  
Lancelot shrugged: "I am lucky. Every child belonging to a rich or noble family has to leave, to be trained as a knight and spend the rest of his life serving a proud and tyrannical king or count or whatever. But Arthur is my friend, he's like my oldest brother."  
Gawain burst into laughter again: "What about me, little brother?" he asked, making the man laugh.  
But Chris, Amy and Michael kept pensive. He had said Arthur, and not King Arthur this time. Their friendship must have been really strong.  
"Well, and you have family here too... Your uncle," Michael said, in a comforting tone, after a while.  
Lancelot nodded: "Yes, but I didn't know that until lots of years passed. My only family was the court and the other kids being trained and the knights themselves."  
Chris nodded silently. Lancelot had been separated from his family when he was just a child, and he could understand all the things he could have felt. He had had to endure his mother's and aunts' deaths, and the loss of Wyatt to the evil side, and a father who had completely neglected him... In a different way, he had also been separated from his family when he was young.  
"Camelot," Gawain announced when they crossed the border of the forest, interrupting the thoughts of the Elder-witch and the conversations around him.  
Chris raised his eyes, as well as the others, to see how the golden city brightened under the sun, there in the distance. It was beautiful. More beautiful than they remembered after their arrival. They had never imagined anything like that in the so-called Dark Ages.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Look... Wyatt never betrayed us, he never lied to us... So why shall we not trust him in that case?" Phoebe tried to reason with her sister.  
"But he's my son... even if he has his own family," Piper sobbed," he's still my son... I do love him and I just can't sit back and watch him suffer... I know he's in danger Phoebe, I can feel it."  
"Piper..." Phoebe hugged her trying to calm her down. She knew that her sister always wanted to protect Chris since she knew who he was... But since the latest adventures about Rhashirk she was kind of overprotective... for all her sons.  
"You know that Chris can take care of himself," the empath said with a sigh, "you DO KNOW it!"  
"Yeah..." Piper admitted, "but still I just can't sit here and do nothing..."  
"But you have to," they suddenly heard Leo's voice. No one of them had noticed that he had orbed back to their room.  
"So the Elders agree with that images of my son?" Piper asked kind of annoyed.  
"Actually," Leo started and sat down next to his wife, "I didn't tell them anything... When I came up, a surprisingly pissed Silas informed me, that the Oracle told the Elders to stop seeking for Chris."  
"So, they are giving up?" Phoebe asked confused.  
Leo shook his head: "Of course not, but the Oracle said it's all like it has to be... Chris is meant to be in the past right now... like Wyatt said too. There is a reason for all that..."  
"And what about Mike?" Piper asked.  
Leo sighed. He had also thought about that. "I hope that's including him too."

°°°°°°°°°°

Arthur was pacing through his thrown room impatient. After he woke up he had called for Merlin but no one could find the sorcerer. Now he was getting more and more nervous.  
He hadn't forgotten the words of his friend and mentor... those words he had told him before he went to sleep. If really someone was after the sword, then that could mean the end of his city... the end of Camelot. He had to stop that person. Excalibur was his sword, only his.  
Of course he knew he didn't need the sword to be the man he was... But he knew about its power to protect him and to make the others listen to him. If it wasn't for the sword, no one had listen to his words, no one had helped him to built this city... even if his words were right...  
He sighed.  
Then the doors to his room swung open and his friend entered... finally.  
"Merlin? Where have you been?" he asked impatient.  
"My king... I was at the lake..." the sorcerer answered.  
Arthur rose his left eyebrow: "And? Anything new?"  
Merlin sighed. "I'm not sure... She told me that everything will go it's way... and that I should trust my heart..."  
"So what is your heart telling you?" the king asked curious.  
Merlin sighed again: "I'm still not sure but... I think..." He hesitated. What if he was wrong... it was just a weak feeling... it was just that something of that man reminded him of his king... but what if that man was tricking him?  
"Merlin?" Arthur asked.  
"It's difficult my king... I've only seen a spirit... I have to meet him in person to judge him... But I hope that we can trust him..."  
The king nodded thoughtful. What if that legend of the trees meant that to save his city he had to give up his right to rule it... What if it was now time for something new? Could he give up all that? He sighed. 'Yes, I could... IF it's meant to be, then I can...' he thought.  
"Nevertheless we need to protect Excalibur!" Merlin went on. "And I hope that those strangers could help us to bring some light to all this. If we find them, that is..."

°°°°°°°°°°

When the horses first stepped at the other side of the tall, strong gates of the town, all the villagers started to bow and praise the knights as soon as they saw the shields.  
Michael thought he was getting used to that. He loved that people revered them in such a way. By then, Chris was walking and he had got on the horse, behind Lancelot. His legs and other parts of his body still hurt, but the blisters that were starting appear in his feet doubled that pain. He had never walked so much in his life!  
Chris and Amy observed in silence how the people acted before their heroes, and how the knights answered with their smiles and waving their hands. Their swords brightened under the golden sun, and they seemed to be invincible.  
For God's Sake, they were Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain! And Sir Gaheris, Sir Gareth, Sir Perceval, Sir Agravaine, Sir Bors, Sir Kay... Even the king. The Knights of the Round Table, the guardians of Camelot, the safest and most perfect town in the known-world! And those were their glorious days...  
But one day, Michael thought looking at those people, and turning to look at their new friends sadly: One day all of them would die. Their fraternity would break, and Camelot would fall. One day, brothers would turn against their brothers, fathers against sons, and again, power and ambition would govern, ending with King Arthur's and Merlin's golden dream.  
Michael was thinking all that as they rode through the over-crowded streets of Camelot, and observed the behavior of all the villagers and the two knights. He remembered all the stories he had read when he was a teenager. All these knights had been his heroes, but unfortunately, he knew the end of the story. He had always loved that part because it was so dramatic, full of action, tension... And it was perfect as the climax of a story; but after all, it had only been a legend for him. However this time it was true. These people were real, and his point of view about their end had changed a lot.  
He looked at Chris, pondering whether he should tell him about it some day, since it seemed that he had not read much about King Arthur and his legend... But he had no more time for that, because they had just arrived at the entrance of the castle, in the upper part of the city.  
Gawain had cried something, and the gates had opened almost immediately. Another knight was standing there, waiting to greet them, and Chris and Michael recognised him at once. That was the one that had taken them to the king, the one that had been guarding them.  
For a moment, both of them felt a little scared. Chris stepped backwards instinctively at the sight of the knight approaching, but it did not take him long to realise that his attitude was completely different. And he was not looking at them... not at all...  
Gawain jumped off the horse and rushed to hug the knight, with his arms open: "Greetings, my brother Gaheris!"  
"You're very welcome, Gawain. We missed you two a lot."  
Gawain hugged him tightly, something really weird at that time, probably, and he resembled a big bear attacking a young man, because that was what Gaheris looked like.  
But Lancelot just smiled as he jumped off his horse, and invited Michael and Amy to do the same thing.  
"How did everything go, brother?" Gaheris asked, separating himself from Gawain, but still not paying much attention to the others.  
"Do you call brother to each other all the time?" Chris asked, thinking that it was more like a religious order... Although he suddenly remembered that in his history classes he had learnt that in fact, in the Middle Ages, there were religious orders of knights, and therefore they were something between monks and warriors, a strange combination... But he never thought that in King Arthur's times things were like that.  
Michael smiled at his question, as well as Lancelot, while Amy and Chris listened attentively. "No, Chris... They are true brothers. Gawain is much older than him, he was always like his father or uncle. But they're brothers. And also young Gareth, the youngest. He's no more than a teenager. But you'll meet them all."  
Chris nodded, pensive, as Gawain and his brother kept on talking.  
"And did you find that giant and the dragon?" Gaheris asked.  
Gawain smiled and looked back at Lancelot, who winked. "Of course we did. We killed them and saved the dame."  
Michael frowned as he looked at Chris and Amy, who raised an eyebrow. "Do dragons really exist?? And giants?" he asked, shocked. He had always thought that those were parts of the legend, more like fairy tales...  
But the answer was fast. Shaking his head, Lancelot explained: "People don't know much. They don't go far away from the town, and when one does, he sees really shocking things. Away from here there are other people who are taller than us. And animals that can not be seen here. There are even some weird people, with deformed faces... For our villagers, they are magical beings, as they were for me when I was a child. But Merlin taught me many things about life. He showed me things I had never seen, because he has travelled a lot. And now I have too, and I can say that there are marvellous things out there, and beings that might appear like weird or magical to us, but guess what... All those people away from here thought that we were some kind of magical being too; some god-warrior, or something like that, just because of our physical appearance."  
They nodded, surprised, and in part understanding, after that explanation. At that moment, another knight, or a pseudo-knight, because he was really small and skinny compared to the others, ran out of the castle and jumped on Gawain's arms. It was Gareth.  
They hugged and talked for a while, until Lancelot intervened: "Sorry to tell you, but I guess we should rush because the king needs to know..."  
"I need to know many things, my friend..." a voice said coming from the side.  
Lancelot turned to face the king, who was smiling sadly at him. The knight bowed slightly and said: "My Lord..."  
"I missed you, my good friend..." and he hugged him tightly.  
The knight embraced him strongly: "How does My Lady Guinevere feel, Arthur? Is she...?"  
Arthur shook his head sadly: "We won't be blessed by the gift of an heir. The lineage of the Pendragons is destined to fade away with me... But those are not my worries now, my friend."  
Lancelot smiled at him sadly, and nodded: "And I am sorry to tell you that we don't bring good news; we need to protect..."  
"Excalibur."  
Lancelot frowned, turning to Chris and Michael: "Do you already know?"  
Arthur nodded, turning to look kindly at Chris and Michael, who seemed to be a bit ashamed.  
"It seems that a very kind and friendly spirit came to warn us..."  
Lancelot looked at Chris for a second: "I... I understand..."  
"You are very welcome back, young men. I am truly sorry for what happened yesterday. I lost my nerves, but you need to understand that my situation is not the best at this precise moment."  
Chris smiled and bowed: "No problem. It's ok But we need to hurry..."  
Arthur frowned at his strange language, and Michael and Amy could not help chuckling slightly, but he was right. They had to rush.  
"Who's he?" Arthur asked, pointing at Amy.  
The girl lowered her eyes, and said nothing, feeling her body tremble a little bit.  
"He's a friend of us. He needed not to be so outstanding so we gave him some clothes of a page," Chris explained, avoiding the part that said that 'he' was actually a 'she'. He did not want to lie to the king, but that was a long story.  
"Alright then... There's no time to lose. Follow me," the king said.  
Lancelot looked back, but Gawain was still talking with his brothers, so he just followed the king, as well as the others. They still had to tell many things to Arthur, and probably he would ask, but first, the most important thing was to save the sword.

°°°°°°°°°°

After a while, Phoebe finally convinced Piper to go down with the others. Chatting would do her well, time would fly and Chris would be back very soon.  
When they arrived in the lounge, Angela was massaging her temples, tired, as Bianca talked with Cole about what they had seen in the attic. He was trying to explain again what the vision had been.  
"Something like a hologram?" Bianca had asked.  
He shook his head. "Not exactly. It was more like a video..."  
"But a video in 3D..." Bianca said again.  
Finally, Angela had had raised her eyes, right when Piper and Phoebe came in, and said: "You mean, something like what they used to do in Star Wars?? Like a video-message, but a futuristic one?"  
Cole looked at her, and then smiled slightly: "Yeah... I think so..." Piper had to smile at that, as she sat on the sofa by the two girls.  
Phoebe jumped on Cole's knees and kissed him on the lips. "Have I told you that I love you?" she asked.  
He grinned. "Only a thousand times..." he whispered in her ears.  
Piper shook her head, somehow frustrated because that behavior made her think that they were actually completely unaware of the danger in which Chris could be. But that was love, and that was life. Chris was not the center of it, and she should start to see that...

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Michael were following King Arthur and Sir Lancelot through the ways of the castle. They had told Amy to stay with Gawain and to call Chris if there would be any problem. The Elder-witch thought it would be better to discuss things without her.  
They walked through a large hallway with lots of paintings on the stony walls. Candles were lighting their way. But, while Michael was looking at all that medieval stuff excited, Chris wasn't paying much attention to all that. He was the last one in the row, and he observed the king with a mixture of wonder and awareness.  
Lancelot noticed his new friend's hesitation and stepped next to him. "What's wrong?" he asked.  
"Nothing," Chris said. "It's just... the sword..."  
The knight frowned: "What? What's wrong with it?"  
"Nothing, it's just that I met the sword before... or will meet, from your point of view," Chris tried to explain. "And that was everything else than a good and funny experience..."  
"You mean... you've seen Excalibur... in the future you came from?" Lancelot became more and more curious about all that. But Chris just nodded. He wasn't eager to tell the knight that his brother tried to kill him with that damned sword a couple of times.  
So they went on silently, passing some large doors and huge halls. Finally they stopped in front of a huge wooden door, which had the sign of the king on it. Lancelot opened the heavy door slowly. Then the king entered, the knight followed him. Also Chris and Michael were about to enter, but then the latter one stopped.  
"That isn't right," Michael said when he saw the huge round table in the middle of the room, "we shouldn't be here, we're not allowed to be here, we aren't knights."  
Chris looked at his friend frowning, then turned to the king. Arthur meanwhile looked at Lancelot: "Have I ordered something like that?"  
The knight smiled: "Actually... yes my king."  
Arthur chuckled a little, then he turned to the two strangers: "Well... my dear friend Lancelot trusts you. And if it's a rule, that only knights are allowed to sit here... kneel down!"  
Chris and Michael were hesitating, but when they saw Lancelot smiling asuringly, they did. Michael felt a weird kind of excitement, when the king approached him and placed the sword - Excalibur - on his shoulders.  
"From now on," the king said while he moved on to Chris, "you are knights of Camelot."  
Chris had closed his eyes, but he could still feel the cold metal on his shoulder. And not only that... He could also feel the magic that was lying within the sword. He could feel the immense power of Excalibur and he felt the desire to just take it to his own hands... He swallowed. ‚No,' he thought to himself, 'you're stronger than that...' Then he felt the power weaken, the sword had left his shoulders. When he opened his eyes he saw the smiling face of the king.  
"Now rise, my friends, and take a seat," he said gesturing to the table.  
"Oh my God I can't believe it," Michael muttered to Chris, as they stood up, "we're knights."  
Chris sighed: "Yeah... we are..."

* * *

_(Chapter 6 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)  
_


	7. Chapter 7

**A Charmed Story - Part Ten:  
An Elder's Tale  
Chapter 7**

Merlin was hurrying through the halls of the castle. He had been in his rooms, searching through his papers again, when a page came to tell him that the king had called for him.  
He had been working though the text of the legend of the trees for a thousand times. Still he wasn't sure about the meaning. But it was without doubt the key to all this what was happening at the moment. Someone would come to take the sword away from his king.  
And again he was wondering if he could trust the spirit he had seen. He had said that an Elder was after the sword. Why should the Elders do that? Those he had talked to, had been really kind, and they all believed that Camelot was a great thing... So why should one of them want to end all that? And could he believe that spirit, when he said he was an Elder, too... Could you even summon a spirit of an Elder, of such a high magical being?  
He was still submerged in his thoughts when he entered the room of the round table.  
Chris looked up, and when their eyes met, Merlin was frozen in shock. That was something he hadn't expected. "You?" he said.  
The Elder-witch was a little unsure what to do. But then he stood up, went over to the sorcerer, and took his hand to shake it. "As I told you before, you're very famous, there were I come from," Chris said to explain his actions, "so I'm honored to meet you... this time in person."  
Michael and Lancelot couldn't help chuckling, and also the king seemed to be amused. Merlin just stared back at the young man, with wide opened eyes. Then he took a deep bow in front of him.  
Now Chris felt embarrassed. He pulled the sorcerer back into a standing position, looked into his eyes and asked: "Why are you doing that?"  
"You... you're an Elder... you really are," Merlin mumbled, "and you came down to us... and..."  
The Elder-witch smiled shyly: "Ok, stop it Merlin, please..."  
The sorcerer obeyed. He would never disobey an Elder. And then he saw again something familiar in Chris's face... in his eyes. But still he couldn't catch it. Nevertheless he was suddenly sure, that he could trust him. "But why are you here...??? I haven't seen an Elder on earth since over ten years..." he asked then.  
Now the king rose his eyebrows: "Merlin... what do you mean with your words?"  
Michael looked shocked at Chris and Merlin, not knowing what to say, and Lancelot was curious, too. Merlin frowned, still staring at Chris, and the king was waiting for an answer.  
Chris shrugged nervously and looked at them all one by one: "Ok... This is a long story. And I am confused too with what Merlin has just said... But I guess I need to explain some things first." He sighed, and looked in Arthur's kind eyes: "I am... let's say I am some kind of magical person, but a good one... as you already supposed." He stopped, taking a deep breath, and looking around. Now, Arthur was curious, Merlin interested, as well as Lancelot, and Michael shrugged.  
Chris went on explaining, feeling like an idiot: "I am not a witch. Well, I am, but the witches you know, the ones you think that are evil..."  
Merlin smiled: "Well, I am a sorcerer, and I am alive, so relax, young man." Arthur nodded, waiting for the continuation of the story.  
Chris nodded again and took a deep breath: "I have powers. Which means, I can do magic. And I used to be a witch, until something happened, and I became something... let's say... superior in the line. I am an Elder."  
"And Elders are...?" Arthur asked, making a gesture with his hand that meant 'Please, go on.'  
But this time it was Merlin who took the word: "Elders are servers of God, my King. Let's say that they work for him, with him, and for the greater good of this world. They are, so to say, angels."  
King Arthur looked at Chris impressed: "Are you an angel?"  
Chris blushed suddenly, at the sight of Arthur's and Lancelot's amazement. "Well... Not exactly, but..."  
He felt Merlin's hand on his shoulder: "He is an angel. I am sure those things will change in the future, and probably you'll call people like you in a different way, but believe me. When the Elders come to Earth and visit people, heal them, or do other miracles, villagers say that an angel came to visit them. So basically, my child, you're an angel in the middle ages, no matter what you are in your time."  
Chris looked the old man in his eyes, shocked. He had never thought of himself as an angel, but technically he was right. Even in his time, people did not know what was going on up there. They talked about God and angels and all those things. And technically whitelighters and elders, who were very similar for normal people, were all considered angels...  
"So, you are an angel... " Arthur repeated.  
"Oh, mon Dieu..." murmured Lancelot in his mother tongue, looking amazed at his new and always surprising friend. Chris had told him that he was an Elder... but that Elder meant angel was new to him, too... even if that explained a lot.  
Chris swallowed, and shrugged, but then nodded: "I guess I am..."  
For a moment there was silence. Michael stared at them all without uttering a word. That was all to much for those people in the middle ages, how were they going to react?  
Chris, on the other side, also wanted to know something. What had Merlin meant by saying that Elders had not been seen for ten years? Had he met others, maybe?? And why?? He wanted to ask the question, but he did not know how to start.

°°°°°°°°°°

When the movie was over Steve sighed.  
Tom looked at him wondering. His friend had been more relaxed since they had restarted watching the movie, but now he felt through their connection that something was bothering his friend. "What's wrong?" he asked therefore.  
"Nothing," Steve said. "I just thought about the truth in all this... And..." He hesitated a moment, noticing that Tom's and Nicki's eyes were focused on him. "And... I thought about something Chris told me..."  
Steve knew by now all the dirty details about Chris's past, about the future he came to change. About how Wyatt tried to kill him with Excalibur several times... But he couldn't tell his friends about that. Chris had told him those things, because he trusted him... And Steve was anything else than someone who couldn't keep a secret.  
Tom guessed that it must have something to do with the evil version of Chris's brother. He wanted to change the topic, but Nicki was faster.  
"I'm wondering... if we ask Piper, do you think she will let us have a look on the sword? I would love to see how it looks like in reality..."  
Steve shrugged: "As far as I know, they are hiding it somewhere..."  
Tom nodded. Then another thought crossed his mind. "Hey... Wyatt was here, two times... but do you notice? He never carried the sword with him..."  
"And?" Nicki asked. She didn't understand what was so interesting about that. Wyatt was twice blessed he really didn't need the sword to defend himself.  
"Nothing," Tom said, "it's just... If I would be the owner of this sword I would never leave it alone somewhere... not for a second."  
Steve frowned: "Well... I guess that's why you're not the owner of it..."  
Tom threw a pillow after his friend as they all began to laugh.

°°°°°°°°°°

Gideon was pacing in his hiding place very angry. That Amy... She had failed. Or she had betrayed him, and none of those were good things. He had to find the sword and destroy it. He really had to. And those people who wanted it too, because he knew who they were.  
Or who he was. That so announced and predicted twice blessed who had probably come from the future as well as Amy. He had to find him and kill him, and destroy the sword, and he would save the world from that greater evil that he had foreseen in the oracle.  
The other Elders were acting so blindly! But they'd have to be grateful eventually. They would be kneeling in front of him, thanking him for saving the great design...  
However, it was a hard task. Now he was alone, but he needed to find the sword and soon... He took a cloak, put it over his shoulders, and orbed, straight to Camelot.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Ok..." Chris finally said, shaking his head. "I'm just a young man as normal as everyone else..." He was getting nervous under those amazed looks of Lancelot and Arthur. "... I have just a little more powers, but I'm thinking not very different form any other man, nor do I have other needs... Alright...??? Because I'm really starting to feel like a freak in here..."  
Now Michael chuckled, same as Lancelot. The king smiled: "Right... I apologise. I can imagine how you must feel..." He sighed: "So... back to our current problem, what do you know about the sword?"  
Chris looked at the king and thought about how he should start. "Well... I don't know much... Me and my friend, we came here accidentally... We came from another time. Then we were captured by your knights and then freed by that young girl."  
The king nodded: "Yes, my knights are trying to capture her, but she does a king of magic that..." He didn't end this sentence, imagining that this Elder already knew about that.  
For a moment they kept silent, and Chris asked himself what the king would do if he finds out that the girl was already there, in his castle.  
"Whatever," he then went on, "she took us to a cave where we found out that another Elder named Gideon wants to destroy Excalibur."  
When Chris had said that, the king rose harshly and slammed his fist on the table, making the others startle. "How can he dare..." he hissed angry.  
Merlin, the only one unimpressed by the kings outburst, turned to Chris: "But why should an Elder want that...??? All those I've met were positive about Camelot."  
The Elder-witch sighed: "I'm not sure... I guess he's afraid, that one of the future owners of the sword will turn evil... And he maybe thinks that by destroying the sword he could stop him."  
"Future owner?" king Arthur asked.  
Chris just nodded.  
"Don't worry," Michael said, "my friend is talking about a future that is really far away."  
"But... when it is like that..." the king was frowning, thinking hard, "maybe it's really better to destroy the sword."  
"WHAT?" Chris and Michael exclaimed at the same time. "OF COURSE NOT!"  
Then the first one said with a calmer voice: "Don't worry, that will NOT happen... The sword will always be in good hands."  
"How can you be so sure?" Merlin asked now. All that was really confusing for him. How could the sword end up in the hands of someone evil? The sword is only meant for the one that has a pure heart.  
"Because I already stopped that from happening... In the time where I come from," Chris said as emotionless as possible.

°°°°°°°°°°

Silas sighed. He hated it, not to be able to do anything... Nervously he paced around in the Elder-library. After the Oracle had told them to stop searching, he went there to try something else.  
He was searching through the books about legends from the middle age, he was searching for something that was related to a timetraveller... If Chris was meant to be in the past, there must be something to find. And he found something: the legend of the trees.  
Completely amazed, yes, nearly shocked he had sat there and read the lines. Then he had called Odin, and now he was waiting for him.  
A minute... two minutes... five minutes... ten...  
"ODIN, DAMNED COME OVER HERE!" he yelled making some other Elders, who were at the library, startle. Some of them eyed Silas with suspicion.  
Finally Odin orbed in grinning. "You're spending too much time with Chris..." he said while he went nearer to his friend, "actually you almost sound like him..."  
Silas looked at him annoyed. "Where the hell..." he stopped realising what he was about to say, realising how right Odin was about the change in his language. He shook his head. Then he said a lot calmer: "What took you so long?"  
"Elenia," Odin said. "I was talking to Jeremiah about her..."  
Silas rolled his eyes, another behavior he had copied from his friend. Odin just smiled about that. Then he asked: "So... why did you call for me?"  
Silas grasped a book from the table next to him, and showed the entry about the legend of the trees to his friend. "Reed," he commanded.  
As Odin did it his eyes grew wider and wider. "Oh my God..." he muttered. "You don't think that..."  
Silas, who was again pacing around, replied: "I don't know what to think, but it seems to be a little too much for just a coincidence, right?"  
"It can't be... That's... that's impossible," Odin remarked.  
Silas sighed and lend against a bookshelf. "Why? What makes you so sure?" he asked and his voice sounded worried. Silas was an Elder for nearly 150 years, but he never had such a good friend like Chris before... maybe because something like friendship didn't mean that much up there, before he came. Nevertheless Silas was very worried about Chris. If the legend was true, then...  
"It can't be, Silas," Odin said interrupting his thoughts. "Otherwise we already would have noticed something."  
Silas sighed again, then nodded. "Yeah, but still..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Gideon orbed to a hidden corner of the castle. Carefully he looked around. No one had seen him. Then he closed his eyes and tried to sense for the girl. It was a little weird but... Yeah... there she was... in the stables. He took a deep breath and started to go over there.  
On his way, he stopped several times in order to avoid to be seen by the knights.  
Then he reached his destination. Carefully he spied through the open gate. The girl was no where to see, even if he still could sense her very near. But all those who were there, were Gawain his two brothers and a page... 'Wait,' Gideon thought, 'Could that be?' His enemy must be really powerful, when he was able to cloak somebody. That's only an Elder power! Or could she has done it on her own, because some whitelighter could do that too, but only to themselves... But no, she was only a half-whitelighter... 'Unbelievable, that there will be half-whitelighters in the future...' he thought.  
Gideon frowned, he needed to find out if he was right, but how? Finally he came to the result that he had no other choice. It was risky, but if she had betrayed him, his secret plan was lost anyway...  
Determined he stepped into the stable and looked at the group. "Good day my lords... I've lost the way and..." Gideon didn't need to say more.  
When Amy saw him she turned pale. "Oh my God..." she muttered, "it's him..."  
Gawain's eyes shot from her to the Elder. He grabbed his sword while he heard how Amy run away to hide.  
When Gaheris and Gareth saw his brothers actions, they did the same, even if they had no idea what was going on.  
"What do you want here?" Gawain hissed angry.  
Gideon just looked at them casually. "Not you," he said and orbed away to find the girl. He needed to get her, she was a perfect bait.  
The brothers just looked at the spot where the Elder had been a moment before. "What was that?" Gareth asked.  
Meanwhile Amy ran into the castle. She ran through some hallways and rooms and... she just ran, even if she knew it was useless. Finally she found stony stairs where she hid underneath. "Chris," she muttered under her fearful sobs. "Chris... help me..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Paige stood in front of the door with the number 1138 since about five minutes. She felt a kind of weird excitement... and an insecurity weather she should knock or not. Finally she did it.  
It took another half minute till the door was opened. "Paige?" Kyle exclaimed smiling. "Didn't you say you have a... a family-problem?"  
"Well..." the Charmed One smiled back, "yeah... but it seems we're forced to just stay in the back and watch this time..."  
Kyle just nodded, even if he didn't understand all that. Then he added: "Oh... I'm sorry, I... after your call I called the restaurant and cancelled, I..."  
Paige smiled shyly and rose her arm, showing him the two boxes of pizza: "If you let me in..."  
Kyle hesitated a moment. Then he stepped out of the way and gestured for her to enter.  
Actually it wasn't like Paige had never been there before, but... she never had been there longer than a few minutes to pick him up. She hadn't been really 'there' before. Now she had the chance to get a closer look on her friend's apartment.  
Kyle quickly grabbed a few shirts from the sofa and gestured for her to sit down while he went to the kitchen to get some coke.  
Paige sat down and looked around interested. It was a typical apartment of a single man. Only less things to decorate the rooms... only a few pictures, some empty bottles of coke and beer, a few magazines and a bottled plant which looked more closer to death than to a healthy living.  
"I'm sorry," Kyle said when he returned, "if I had known... I mean... I would have cleaned the mess a little." When he saw Paige's smile he turned red.  
"Don't worry, Kyle..." she said and pulled him down to sit next to her. "I came here, because I wanted to spend time with you... Not because I wanted to judge over your sense of arranging your apartment.  
He smiled shyly at her. He knew she wasn't judging him, still he felt a little uncomfortable.  
"So what do you want?" Paige asked then. "Salami or Bacon?"  
Kyle grinned: "Well... why don't we share them both..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Gawain roared like a lion, extremely upset by what had just happened. He could not fight magic, and that drove him mad! Give him a sword, and put him in front of the biggest man on Earth, he would fight that. Give him a beast... He would fight that... But magic!! Magic was for cowards, that was why that witch, that Satan's server, had escaped. And that was so frustrating! He kicked a wall, making his two brothers startle, and kept on pacing furiously inside the stables.  
"Magic?" Gaheris asked, looking at Gareth out of the corner of his eyes. He had heard that word among a bunch of other swearing expressions that Gawain had let out in less than ten seconds. "What do you mean by magic? Was that a wizard?"  
Gawain turned to him as if he were going to answer, but then he just snorted, displeased. Gareth stared at him scared. He had heard terrible stories about magic and demonic people, and all that, but he would not show his fears to his oldest brother.  
"Well, I guess we should find him, or he'll get that young friend of yours," Gaheris continued after the lack of answers of Gawain.  
The latter turned to them again, pensive for some seconds, and finally broke out: "You two, go and join the other knights."  
"Should we tell them that...?" a slightly scared Gareth started to ask.  
"Just join them, and keep on training. Forget about this!" he yelled, out of his nerves. Then he looked around. "Do as I said," He added more kindly, putting his sword in its scabbard. "It's better not to scare everyone by talking about magic and demons or witches or whatever. Just try to keep them away from me and the king. And from our visitors," he said, and then he left. He needed to find Amy, or maybe Chris and the king. But he would not stay behind, his arms folded.  
Gaheris and Gareth looked again at each other, and then nodded before leaving the stables to join the other knights.

°°°°°°°°°°

"What if we hide Excalibur somewhere..." Lancelot suggested  
"I don't think that you can hide anything from the Elders," Michael remarked, while Merlin nodded.  
"And what do you think, how we should stop him?" Lancelot gave back.  
The king had listened to all their opinions and ideas attentively. In fact it had been a very heated discussion. Then he noticed that the man who was an Elder, was quiet calm since a few moments. He turned to him and asked: "Sir Chris... is everything alright?"  
When he heard the kings voice, Chris shook his head, like he would wake up from a dream. Then his eyes turned dark because of worry. "Amy..." he mumbled, "he's here..."  
"WHAT?" Michael exclaimed, who was the only one who understood.  
The Elder-witch had already jumped up: "I need to go... excuse me."  
"No, wait!" Michael yelled, "you can't go... he must not see you, remember?"  
Chris stared back at his friend, while the others were observing them curious and wondering.  
"You're right... I'm sorry," he said then to Michael, "you explain them." Then his outer appearance changed into that of his friend. The next second he orbed away.  
Michael turned around and looked a little scared into the eyes of king Arthur who stared back at him with mouth wide open. How should he explain all that to him?

°°°°°°°°°°

Steve and Nicki were sitting close to each other whispering, while Tom had went out to the bathroom.  
"How long will he stay?" she asked with a grin.  
Steve chuckled: "I don't know... you've invited him, remember?" Then he kissed her.  
She kissed him back lovingly. Still in those moments she thanked Chris and adult Wyatt for saving her boyfriend, who was already even more than that. He was the man on her side, the man she wanted to grew old with.  
"Maybe we should send him home?" Steve whispered again when they took a break from the kiss for breathing.  
Nicki smiled but then shook her head: "I guess... He's lonely at the moment... You know? With Veronica away... And I'm sure you need some friends around you too, especially today."  
He sighed: "Don't you think a little sport in the bedroom would be more healthy?"  
"STEVE!" she exclaimed chuckling.  
At that moment they heard the steps of their friend. "What's so funny?" Tom asked as he re-entered the living room.  
"Oh... nothing," Steve said and hugged Nicki closer.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Well, that's... That's another thing that Elders do... angels do..." Michael was trying to explain what had just happened to all the others in the room. He was kind of scared because he was still in the Middle Ages, a time in which people were burnt for doing things less evident than that.  
But the king just shook his head before the attentive look of Merlin and Lancelot. "I think I have to learn many things from magic... But that's why I have my good friend Merlin." He smiled.  
Then he frowned all of a sudden: "But if he's doing his job, we should do ours. The sword must be hidden..."  
"My Lord, I can take it to some safer place than this. I will protect it with my life, if necessary," Lancelot said, resolute.  
Arthur kept silent for some seconds, considering that idea. Then he sighed, but Michael intervened: "My Lord... Actually I think that no place is safe for the sword anymore. Elders can see and can feel everything, and even more if it's magic. Gideon will find it."  
Merlin coughed a little bit and then said: "Actually I think I have an idea..." And looking at Lancelot with a weird bright in his eyes, he added: "Could you take me to the blacksmith of the court??"  
Lancelot nodded, and then looked at Arthur, waiting for his consent: "What are you planning?"  
Merlin smiled: "We have two Michaels now, and that Elder won't be able to discover who the true one is... We can also have two swords. No one in the whole history will know that the sword that remained in Camelot was the fake one."  
"WHAT??" the three men exclaimed at once.  
"Merlin, what are you talking about?" the king asked, surprised.  
"We'll make another Excalibur..."  
Lancelot shook his head energetically: "That won't work. It won't be magic, it won't have power, and besides... Who's supposed to keep the true one? How are we going to hide it? There must be another way..."  
Merlin smiled: "Magic is inside our hearts, young man... If you believe in it, you create magic. We just need people to believe that the sword is the original, and our king will preserve the power, while the true Excalibur is safe."  
Michael and Arthur stared at him, wondering whether that was a good idea, and Lancelot was still frowning: "You haven't said yet what we are going to do with the true one."  
Merlin turned to him smiling enigmatically, and muttered: "The legend of the trees, my friend... The legend of the trees. It was always compatible with the legend of Excalibur. King Arthur will always and forever be the only owner of the magic sword, or am I wrong, my friend?" He asked this, looking now at Michael.  
The young man was about to answer that actually how he was supposed to know that, when he realised. "Oh..." he mumbled, "of course..." Because that was what the books would say. That was what he had read. Excalibur would always be in Arthur's hands, because actually, no one would notice the change. Therefore, technically, Arthur would always and forever be the only owner of the sword. Because magic was in the hearts of all the people. As long as they believed that the sword he used was Excalibur, it would be Excalibur...  
Then he remembered the legends of King Arthur and his knights. How Mordred, Arthur's son, would kill his father to get that sword and the throne; how he himself would use Excalibur - if they'd carry out their plan it would only be a damned copy - to kill his father, an how he himself would die. He remembered how the legend said that Arthur, with his last breath, would throw the sword to the lake, so that no one else could have access to it anymore. Could it be? Could it be that it was because actually, he did not want the others to discover, after his death, that the sword had never been Excalibur? That the king had died for nothing, and that Camelot had not been protected at all by its magic? As long as the people would believe, nothing would change, would it?  
Michael looked at the king sadly, and then to Lancelot and Merlin, and nodded. "Excalibur will only have one owner... King Arthur," he said, as the legend said too. But still... what if they might change anything with this plan?

°°°°°°°°°°

Amy still looking like a page, was underneath the stairs. The fear let her whole body shiver. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she desperately prayed for Chris to come. Her heart skipped a beat and she felt panic rose inside her, when she heard the sound of orbing. Then she heard some heavy footsteps.  
"Come out you little brat... you can't hide from me!" Gideon said with a calm but firm voice.  
Amy began to shiver even more. "Oh Chris, please... " she whispered.

* * *

_(Chapter 7 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)  
_


	8. Chapter 8

**A Charmed Story - Part Ten:  
An Elder's Tale  
Chapter 8**

"Come out..." Gideon said again, "or your parents will suffer because of your betrayal."  
Amy just cried, feeling every little piece of will power leaving her body. Could he do that? Could it be that he had her parents hid somewhere? Could he hurt them? But no, they were dead. Now she was sure he lied to her... But still...  
Again she heard his steps on the stony ground. The sound came closer little by little. Amy held her breath, closing her eyes desperately. "Oh god..." she muttered, shivering.  
"Come out... I'll find you anyway so why shall we waste so much time?" He laughed. His voice was so close.  
Then Amy heard again the sound of orbing and someone shouting: "LEAVE HER ALONE!"  
She spied out of her cover to see Michael approaching the Elder glancing at him with so much hatred that she started to shiver again.  
"So... here you are..." Gideon stated calmly.  
Michael just looked at him: "I will not let you hurt her!"  
"Oh you stupid little twice blessed witch... You will not stop me... I will make sure that you're not going to destroy this world..."  
Michael, or better Chris frowned. Was that bastard really thinking that he was...? That was ridiculous... "You're sooo wrong... in everything," he said laughing.  
Gideon's face turned slightly red. "Oh I don't think so," he hissed back. Then he threw a flash of energy at the young man in front of him.  
Chris quickly rose his hand to let the energy backfire at the Elder.  
Gideon, surprised by this move, had barely time to avoid being hit. The flash smashed against the left side of his chest and he flew backwards by the hot impact.  
When she saw that, Amy left her cover and ran over to Michael. Sure that the fight was over she hugged him and mumbled a 'thank you' to his chest. That was when she noticed that actually it was Chris who was fighting for her, which made her even more relieved. He had kept his promise, even if she had tried to kill him. Now she was sure that everything would be fine.  
But Chris harshly freed himself. "Stay in my back!" he ordered. Amy turned around just to see Gideon rising.  
Chris glanced at him, feeling all the anger, disgust, hatred and aggressions again... The same things he felt when he had killed that bastard, when he had stabbed him into his heart. Oh how he would like to do that again. But he knew he couldn't. He was in the past... his past. If he would kill Gideon than he would probably never return to the past. Because all those things here happened - seeing it more global - before he separated himself from his own time... He would just erase his own existence.  
But that doesn't mean that he couldn't hurt that bastard, and that's what he wanted to do. So he rose his hand again and threw the Elder telekinetically against the wall. Then he sent out some energy flashes on his own, everyone reaching his target.  
Amy just watched her saviour with fear as Gideon lay on the ground, barely able to move. She was shocked to see so much hatred in the eyes of the young man, but she didn't dare to speak.  
"You should better go," Chris hissed to the wounded Elder without showing any emotion except hatred.  
Gideon, still shocked by the fact that this man in front of him was able to hurt him like that, that he was THIS powerful, did the only thing which seemed to be right at the moment. He orbed away muttering: "This isn't over yet..."  
Chris looked at the spot where the Elder had been for a little while, trying to calm down his churned up emotions. Then he turned around to face the girl. "Are you ok?" he asked, the look in his eyes completely changed back to that honest and friendly one. When she nodded, Chris sighed, took her hand and was about to orb. But then they heard footsteps again.  
A moment later Gawain entered the hallway. When he saw them both standing there safe and sound, the knight sighed relieved. "Where is that monster?" he asked then.  
"Gone," Chris still cloaked as Michael answered.  
Gawain nodded, grumbling. He would have loved to beat him on his own. But he knew there was no time for things like that. "We need to go to the king," he said and started to walk away.  
"Wait," Chris said, "If you're brave, we can go there a little faster."  
Gawain turned around and looked at the man with narrowed eyes: "A knight is always brave... so what do you mean by your words?"  
"Take my hand," Chris commanded. The knight did and Chris orbed with him and Amy back to the others.

°°°°°°°°°°

Suddenly Hope woke up from her little nap and started to cry. Bianca sighed and rose. She went over to her, picked her out of the cradle and hold her close in her arms. "Shhhh," she whispered, "mommy is hear... everything's fine." She rocked her gently, soothingly, and slowly the little girl calmed down.  
Angela observed them with a sad smile. Phoebe noticed some weird emotions from her and sat down by her side. "What's wrong?" she asked.  
"Nothing," the woman said surprised. But then she remembered that Michael had told her that Phoebe could read emotions and suddenly she felt embarrassed. "It's just... I hope to have a child too, someday... But..."  
"But?" Cole asked.  
"But we already tried it for a while... without success..." Angela answered with a sad voice.  
Cole nodded smiling... As nearly always he knew a little more about the future then the others, because Chris was really bad in keeping secrets... as long as those weren't about himself. He took her hand and looked into her eyes. "Don't worry so much about that... you will be parents some day, I'm sure..."  
Angela looked at him with a weak smile. She couldn't know how true these words were... She thought he was just trying to cheer her up.  
But Phoebe noticed something. It was something in her husbands voice. And then there was that sparkle in his eyes, which she knew very well. She looked at him with narrowed eyes and then asked: "What did Wyatt tell you?"  
Cole just grinned as Angela looked surprised from on to the other, then he simply said: "Future consequences..."  
Meanwhile the little girl in Bianca's arms was almost asleep again.  
"Is she ok?" Leo asked caring.  
"Yeah," Bianca replied, "she has just a little problem with her stomach again... nothing to worry about."  
"Yeah, grandpa..." Phoebe said smiling, "I thought you already know that this is just normal for little babies..." Leo chuckled. He always felt weird every time someone called him 'grandpa'.  
After that, they kept silent for a while, everyone in deep thoughts. They were just waiting... waiting for anything... waiting for Chris and Michael to come back.  
Suddenly Piper rose: "I'm sorry... But I just can't sit around here any longer!"

°°°°°°°°°°

"Alright," Lancelot said, "maybe this could work, but what will we do with the real Excalibur?"  
"It's all written in the legend of the trees... The answer lies in those sentences," Merlin replied.  
King Arthur sighed: "Merlin, my friend, could you talk to us in a way that we're able to follow?"  
At that moment bluish lights filled the whole room. Everyone was startled by that, less because this was something magical, but more because no one knew who was coming on this way.  
But then they all saw them, Chris - still looking like Michael, Amy - still looking like the page and Gawain. The latter one was feeling dizzy. "In the name of God, what was that?" he asked scared.  
Chris smiled as he turned back into himself before all of their eyes: "Don't worry, just something that's faster then going by feet.  
Gawain still looked at him, unsure what to think about all that. Then he noticed where they had landed within that second of... of travelling. 'That was really fast,' he thought.  
"Is everything alright?" Michael asked meanwhile.  
Chris nodded: "I... he's away... for a while... But I'm sure it will not take long, until he's healed and then he'll return, for sure." The other nodded.  
Then Chris turned to Merlin: "I've overheard your conversation when I came... I don't think that there is any place where we could hide the sword from the Elders... But you were also telling about the legend of the trees... what exactly is it saying?"  
The sorcerer rose his eyebrows. "The legend talks about another person who can hold the sword... Someone who will come to protect it..."  
"I heard that part," Chris interrupted him, frowning, feeling kind of nervous.  
"This person," the sorcerer went on, "is supposed to be only a half - whatever this may mean exactly."  
Chris and Michael looked at him surprised. But while Chris was just wondering who was inventing those riddles, Michael's brain was forming an idea. The only person he knew, who literally had another half was... 'No, that can't be..' he thought.  
Merlin sighed: "If you're that person, you must be able to get Excalibur out of the stone, too..."  
"No, I'm not, be sure of that... I'm not meant to..." Chris interrupted him.  
But Merlin just went on: "... and if you can, then you will take it with you to the future, where this Elder won't be able to reach it. Here we'll keep the fake sword."  
Chris was still frowning but Lancelot and Gawain blinked surprised and looked at the king, who was clenching his fits strongly, visibly undergoing an inside fight with his own encountered feelings. He would not let go the sword. Maybe because he thought that no one else would be able to handle it... Maybe because the sword had possessed him somehow, making the king feel weak without it.  
Whatever it was, Michael intervened, interrupting their thoughts: "You can not do that; Chris cannot take the sword to the future." All the faces turned to him, wonderingly. In part, Chris was relieved, because he had started to ponder the possible implications of that action... That could not work. His mother had taken the sword long ago, she had handled it, and they knew it was Excalibur... If they did that, everything would change so much, he did not even dare to think about it.  
But Merlin was looking at the young man a little bit angrily. "Can we know why that's so impossible?" he asked.  
"Because, believe me... You all are gonna be very famous in the future, and also the sword, and in the stories I have read, the sword is magic and everyone knows it's Excalibur..."  
Amy listened carefully to everything that was said there. She felt still a bit lost, so she tried to absorb as much information as she could.  
"They will know all those things, young man. Because we'll make sure that no one notices," Merlin said.  
But Michael shook his head nervously. He could not let that happen. Arthur would die for nothing. Gawain would die for nothing. All those brave knights would, except Lancelot. He would know and that would be enough. "Excalibur has to stay. That's the right thing..." he said, helpless.  
But at that moment, Lancelot nodded, supporting him: "It has to stay. This is its place, and as I said, I'll fight it with my life if necessary."  
Chris nodded too, looking at the king: "Even if I can get that sword, which I still doubt... it does not belong to me, I am not Arthur and only he can keep it." And he smiled at the king, who was silent, trying to figure out the best solution. Then he added: "And anyway... we would change time far too much with this..."  
Merlin was frowning still bothered for having everyone against him. His was a good idea, but he knew they were right. Actually he was the first that had always believed that the sword belonged to Arthur and only to him.  
"I have an idea..." the king said then, looking at Merlin. The sorcerer nodded, waiting for his explanation. "We'll hide the true Excalibur where no one would look for it. And we'll make that other sword. Merlin... You can add some magic to it, you can..."  
Merlin's eyes brightened with emotion: "I can make it Excalibur itself. I will make a spell on it, so that it emanates Excalibur's magic. It will be like a bait. Once someone gets the sword, it won't be anything else than a simple and traditional sword."  
"But my Lord... You will need the true Excalibur, we can't simply hide it..." Lancelot said, looking at Gawain worriedly out of the corner of his eyes. The huge knight was silent, trying to find a better way for all that, but magic surpassed him.  
"I will have Excalibur with me, Lancelot. Merlin will just redirect its magic to the fake sword. Everyone will see it, it will be exposed as Excalibur was until now, in the rock. Merlin, you will make sure that no one can get the sword out of it... And the true Excalibur will be right here, with the Round Table. But if someone can feel its magic, he will be led to the fake one. I will use my sword in due time... But no one will know there are two swords, as no one knew there were two Uthers Pendragon when I was conceived, Merlin..." Arthur was looking now at the sorcerer, hopeful that he could do that, but Merlin was frowning.  
Finally Chris intervened, shyly: "Maybe... maybe I can help with that."

°°°°°°°°°°

Paige sighed as she leaned back into Kyle's arms. They had just finished their meal and both were now completely full.  
"That was delicious," Kyle said to her ear, "where did you buy them?"  
Paige chuckled: "There is a little pizza-service down this street, didn't you know that?"  
"Oh... there? Well... I knew but I never tried it out before."  
Paige smiled and snuggled herself closer into his arms. She enjoyed it to be so close to him. But on the other hand she was still worried.  
"Hey, what's wrong?" Kyle asked feeling her tension.  
The witch-whitelighter sighed: "I don't know... it's Chris I think... He's somewhere lost in the middle age and we can do nothing else than wait till he's back... It's frustrating to sit in the back, being not able to help..."  
Kyle nodded slowly: "Yeah, I know what you mean... I know that feeling very well."  
Paige rose to look him in his eyes: "Kyle. I..."  
He sighed and pulled her back into his arms: "I know, I shall not worry, but... that's the way I feel... every time you're fighting against demons... I just wish I would be able to help you..."  
She smiled by his words and caressed his cheek: "I know... Well, and I wish I would be able to help you when you're chasing for a thief or a murderer... Then I have to wait for you to come back to me... I think the difference is not that huge..."  
Kyle chuckled. They had had that discussion already a lot of times. And he knew, that Paige was right. They both had jobs which were risky. They were both worried about the others safety. "I love you, you know that?" he said and then kissed her.  
"I know... I love you, too," Paige answered and returned the kiss.

°°°°°°°°°°

Amy followed Gawain through the hallways of the castle. "You're very lucky that the king trusts your friends... Otherwise you would be chained by now..." he said grumpy.  
Chris had given the girl her own appearance back after he had made sure no one would hurt her. When the king had heard her story, he had ordered Gawain to give the girl something to eat. So now they were on their way to the kitchen.  
"I'm sorry," Amy muttered. Gawain sighed and turned around but said nothing. "I'm sorry, for all the trouble I cursed... If I could change all that, I would."  
The knight put his hand on the girl's shoulder and pushed her to go forward. "Well," he said, "I hope you will like the kind of foot we have..."  
They went on for a little longer, then another already well-known knight crossed their way.  
"Finished with training, Gareth?" Gawain asked.  
His younger brother shrugged: "Half way... I think I just needed a moment of distraction." Then he noticed the girl on his brother's side and frowned: "A lady dressed in a man's clothes... who do you think you are?" He laughed.  
Amy just lowered her eyes. She didn't know what to say. But Gawain already went on explaining: "She's hiding, brother... From that man who was in the stables. So save your jokes."  
Now the young knight recognised her clothes. "The page?" he mumbled. Amy turned red, while Gawain slightly nodded. "I'm sorry," Gareth apologised.  
Then the older knight got an idea: "Hey brother, could you make sure that she gets something to eat? Without gaining any attention? I need to see how Lancelot is doing..."  
The young knight nodded: "Sure." Gawain nodded, too, and then left them alone.  
Gareth watched his brother disappear around the corner of the hallway. Then he offered Amy his arm: "My lady..."  
Amy blushed. Hesitating she took the knight's arm and let him lead her through the castle. She couldn't explain why, but this felt wrong. She had cursed so much trouble, but everyone was nice to her... and she couldn't deny that this Gareth was kind of cute which made the situation more uncomfortable for her.

°°°°°°°°°°

Michael, Chris and Lancelot were walking over to the blacksmith silently. They were all submerged in their own thoughts. Finally Chris sighed: "That's all so weird... Why me?"  
"What do you mean?" Lancelot asked curious.  
Chris shook his head: "I don't think I should tell you that, because... it's about the future."  
"It's about that legend, isn't it?" Michael asked and Chris nodded.  
Lancelot looked from one to the other: "That's not fair, you know... You're talking and making me curious with all that... But when I ask, you tell my that you can not talk about that..."  
Chris sighed again, thinking about all that. What harm could he do, by telling him? 'Nothing actually,' he thought. Because the knight would know still too less of all that to be able to change anything. "Ok," Chris said then. "After the death of your king, the sword will disappear for a long time... but not forever... it will be back finally... and... his new owner is my brother."  
Lancelot looked back at Chris amazed. "From there you know it?" he asked curious. The Elder-witch just nodded, while Michael shook his head again. He couldn't believe that Chris had just told him that.  
Then for the knight another thing fell into place, something about what Chris said before, something about the future owner of the sword turning evil, and also that he had stopped that chain of events from happening. And suddenly he understood why his new friend felt uncomfortable around Excalibur. "Oh... But why isn't he here now, to help us?" the knight went on.  
Chris sighed: "That's what I'm asking myself all the time..." He looked at Lancelot for a long time without saying anything else. The knight looked back at him, his eyes curious and friendly. Chris really liked him.  
Michael was watching the two men impatient. They were not on a walk, they had a mission... But when he thought about all that, when he looked at his friends, he got another idea.  
"Hey," he said, "I don't think this will work... we can't hide the sword like that, Gideon would find it out sooner as you can blink... We have to make him stop trying it... Or else he will do it again and again."  
Lancelot nodded, same as Chris. "But how do you want to do that?" the knight asked.  
"We need him to believe that he has no chance against the king... if we're going to make a second sword now... why aren't we creating a second Arthur?"  
Chris frowned, trying to follow his friends reasoning, while Lancelot shook his head. But Michael nodded energetically and asked the knight: "You know how to use a sword, right?"  
"Of course," he answered, "but I don't..."  
Michael didn't listen, instead he was examining Lancelot's appearance, his height and so on. Chris slowly began to understand his friends idea and smiled. That could really work...  
But then Michael suddenly stopped, his eyes fixed on the knights neck. "Were do you have that from?" he asked then, a little shaky and pointed to a little medal the knight was wearing around his neck. That was his medal... the one he once gave his wife.

°°°°°°°°°°

Amy walked silently by the young knight's side, not even daring to raise her eyes. In her time she was the kind of cheeky person who did not mind behaving rudely and was not very ashamed of not being that 'girly' all the time. But here, she just felt this was the proper way to behave, especially when she was with a knight.  
"So he was after you?" Gareth asked timidly, leading her to a small room with some wooden tables and beer split everywhere on the floor. He moved a chair helping her sit down, which she did with a shiver, thinking of Gideon again. She just nodded, so he went on: "What does he want, if I may ask...?"  
She felt a thrill on her back: "I am not sure... if I should tell you what I know."  
Gareth lowered his eyes ashamed: "I am sorry, my lady; I am just... I talk to much."  
Amy looked at him, and could not help smile feebly: "It's ok, you can ask, we can keep a conversation... I just think I should not talk about that or your brother, is he your brother? He will kill me..."  
This time, Gareth laughed slightly: "Gawain? Yes, he is my brother. But don't be worried about his attitude. He's like that, but he's the best person in the world. He would not kill a fly as long as it is on his side."  
Amy frowned a little bit confused by those words, but seeing him smile, she started to laugh: "Maybe you're right... Thanks..."  
Gareth nodded, and went to the room next to that one they were in. He said something and then came back, and sat down by Amy. "It is very weird to see you dressed like a man," he commented.  
She blushed almost immediately: "I know... You may not be used to it, but in my... the place where I come from, girls usually wear some items of clothes like those that men use."  
Gareth nodded and smiled: "It sounds like an interesting place." Then he burst into laughter, and she blushed more. "I am sorry..." he said, stopping when he noticed that she was feeling bad.  
At that moment, two girls came bringing some chicken and drinks with them. They placed them silently on the table and left without uttering a word. Gareth thanked them and after that he pushed one of the plates towards her.  
"Actually..." he went on, "I think you're very beautiful with those clothes. I think girls should dress like men here too."  
She raised her eyes to meet his, and felt her face becoming warmer and warmer, but at the same time she could not take her eyes from his. She had not noticed how beautiful they were, and how innocent he seemed to be. He was a knight, too, as Gawain and Lancelot, but a young one, who had not been in many battles probably and had not seen too many bad things yet. She felt pity at the thought that he would probably see all those things sooner or later...  
Gareth lowered his eyes, feeling weird with a woman as self-confident as her, looking so directly at him.  
"Thank you..." she muttered, with the sweetest of the voices, sweeter than she had planned, actually.  
He raised his eyes again and looked at her; they remained that way for a while, until she turned her head to the food and started to eat, a little bit ashamed. Gareth took a glass and drank its content, also confused.  
"Thank you for everything..." she repeated.

°°°°°°°°°°

"But how happened this?" Odin asked confused as he healed his friend. He was badly wounded like he hadn't seen it in a long time.  
"I was down there... I..." the other Elder hesitated, "I was seeking for a witch... a special one..."  
Odin sighed while he finished the healing: "Gideon, that's too risky... you know that. You know that they hunt people like us down there..."  
The other one nodded mumbling. Odin shook his head. Gideon had been acting kind of weird lately, always seeking for new witches in a time where being a witch was the last thing the people down there wanted. And then that stupid field he had helped to create... it seems he was kind of afraid that the witches would die out... 'He's talking to the Oracle too often,' Odin thought. Then he said: "By the way, who was hurting you like that... I mean, those wounds are kind of serious." Odin hadn't been an Elder very long, but he had already seen a lot... especially in those days... But this?  
Gideon sighed not knowing what to say. Then he shrugged smiling: "Well I found that witch... but she doesn't seem to agree with me..."  
Odin chuckled and helped his friend up: "You really need to be more careful my friend, you really need to."  
Gideon sighed. He had to be careful not to expose his plans. He knew that the other Elders believed in Camelot and Excalibur... and in Arthur. But still, that man would not live forever... "I will, my friend, I will," he said. He thanked his friend for the healing and then orbed away.  
Odin sighed when he saw the bluish orbs of his friend disappear. Something was bothering him, he had felt it. But... no... Gideon is an Elder for so long... it must be kind of frustrating for him, to see that magic is so much feared at the moment. He sighed and then returned to his work. He needed to prepare a lot of things before the next meeting of the council.

* * *

_(Chapter 8 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)  
_


	9. Chapter 9

**A Charmed Story - Part Ten:  
An Elder's Tale  
Chapter 9**

"Where do you have that from?" Michael had asked, looking amazed at Lancelot's neck, and the medal that hung from it. They all stopped walking for a moment. Lancelot frowned and Chris looked at them curious.  
"The... the medal..." Michael insisted with a trembling voice. He could not believe that the jewel was the same. That was not possible... Was it?  
"This token?" Lancelot asked, wrapping the medal in his fist softly and lovingly. Suddenly his eyes brightened in a weird way, but Chris was unable to understand why, so he just kept looking from one to another. What was up with that medal?  
"She gave it to me, as a reward for having saved her," he explained shortly.  
"She? Her? Who are we talking about?" Chris asked, confused, and for a moment forgetting about what had brought them there.  
But his questions gained him a warning look by Lancelot. There was something new in his countenance, in his whole body. He had tensed and somehow, he had gone to the defensive position, but Chris had no clue why. However, Michael had gone paler, and he seemed to understand everything very well.  
"It's just the prize a knight gets when he rescues his... a dame, I mean... She was kidnapped, that's all. But I saved her and that's the end of the story. Sir Mike, can I ask why are you so interested in this object?" Lancelot asked coldly. Chris was shocked by his attitude, and looked at Michael wonderingly, but he had lowered his eyes.  
"I just... Well, I gave one which was exactly like that to my... my wife, " he explained. Then he raised his eyes to look in Lancelot's who was now more relaxed, but still frowning, a bit confused.  
"You mean... in the future?" he asked wondering.  
Michael nodded: "When I... when I wooed her. When I asked her to marry me... I pretended to be a knight and she was my Dame, and I gave it to her." Lancelot listened to him silently.  
But Chris could not understand what was going on. He felt some weird attitude around, but he could not put his finger on what it was: "You said that was too old-fashioned, Mike..."  
"Yeah, but it's not in this time, is it, Sir Lancelot?" he asked the knight, who was piercing him with his eyes. At this point, Chris decided to stay silent.  
"We knights praise, idolise and worship dames, and we protect them too, and promise them an eternal loyalty and respect, and they give us tokens to thank us and to reward us. That is the use in this time," he answered dryly.  
But Michael smiled and nodded, pretending that nothing had happened: "Oh, yeah.. I guess she should have given me that medal, and not the other way round." Lancelot looked at him curious, as well as Chris. "Ok, we should go..." he said, starting to walk with a sad feeling in his heart.  
But Lancelot would not let him go like that. He stopped him grabbing his arm: "Wait. Why were you asking about the medal? I guess you did not want to know just who gave it to me... Don't you think it's weird that this medal is in your time?"  
Michael shrugged: "I guess mine is a fake one, a copy. It can't be the real one."  
"Why not?" Chris asked, feeling that again, the topic was inside his possibilities of discussion. "I mean... It's a big coincidence that we ended up here and then Lancelot is wearing the same medal as you gave to his wife... Don't you think? Why should it survive all this time to finally end up in your hands?"  
"Are you talking about magic?" Lancelot asked.  
Chris looked at him, and then shrugged. "Or destiny... I don't know... But maybe your medal was destined to belong to him and then bring us here... somehow," Chris said.  
Lancelot nodded slowly: "Perhaps..."  
Michael was silent now, thinking of all his conversation and cursing himself for having brought up that topic. "Anyway, I think we should hurry and carry out your plan, whatever it is."  
Chris sighed and nodded: "You are right..." And he started to walk.  
Lancelot was going to go behind him, when Michael took his arm. "He's your friend," he said, simply.  
The knight looked at him surprised, and then turned to see how Chris was going further.  
"What are you talking about?" he asked, nervously.  
"You know what I am talking about. I'd never do that to Chris. You have to listen to me, Lancelot... He's your friend." Michael looked like really anxious about his warns.  
Finally Lancelot nodded and smiled slightly. "I would never hurt my best friend and my lord, Michael. In any possible way. I would never betray him," he stated.  
He and Mike stayed looking in each others' eyes for a while, until the latter swallowed and sighed. "I know..." he said sadly. Then he smiled back.  
"Come on, what's going on there? We need to hurry!" Chris exclaimed from some distance. The two men nodded and followed him.  
"Hey... take care of that medal. My wife loves it," Michael said, trying to relieve tension.  
Lancelot smiled and nodded again, but there was something dark in his countenance. Some worries saddened his expression. And Mike knew what it was.  
"Ok..." Chris said as they started to walk again, feeling suspicious for their secrets, but willing to finish their mission as soon as possible. "Which is exactly the plan?"  
"What if we make another king Arthur out of Lancelot?" Michael suggested. "So we don't only have a second sword but also a second king... And when Gideon attacks he will not know which is the right one, hopefully... That would give us time to act, in which way ever..."  
Chris grinned: "Sounds good..."  
"What???" Lancelot exclaimed shocked. "You... you want me to... NO!!!... That's impossible... I can't do that!"  
"What can't you do?" a familiar voice asked suddenly. Gawain had crossed their way and heard the last part of their conversation.  
"Well..." Michael sighed, "Sir Lancelot shall play another King Arthur."

°°°°°°°°°°

Odin frowned... He read the text over and over again, while Silas was again pacing in front of him. "Please tell me that I'm wrong," he said then, and stopped. He looked at his friend who was still submerged in the text. "Are you really sure that it's not like this? Because I'm still afraid it is..." he asked again.  
Odin looked up, then he shrugged. "No, I'm not sure... How could I? This legend is very old, and the more older they are the more easily you can read them in the wrong way..."  
Silas sighed: "Then it could be him, right?"  
Odin looked at the book again and then back to his friend, before he slightly nodded.  
Silas sighed again and let himself fall back into another chair. "That's not good," he muttered.  
Odin first nodded. Then, thinking things through he frowned: "Why not?"  
"Because... hasn't he already enough things to do... What about him being an Elder... and more important, being a father...?"  
Odin smiled, understanding his friend: "Don't worry, Silas... you know what the oracle said... things will go their way and we can't do nothing else then let them do so... In that case we are not able to do anything else..." Silas nodded, even if that thought made him feel uncomfortable.

°°°°°°°°°°

"What?" Amy asked, when she saw the look of astonishment on the young knight's face.  
He blushed a little: "Well... I never saw a lady eating that much... I'm sorry."  
Amy looked down to her plate. She had eaten nearly the complete chicken. "Well," she said felling embarrassed, "I haven't eaten much in the past four days since I'm here.  
Gareth nodded: "As I said, my lady, I'm sorry for being that rude... I'm not used to this kind of conversation." He looked down to his hands feeling a weird insecurity in front of that young woman. He couldn't understand it... himself... But in front of her he just felt kind of weak and embarrassed.  
"Oh no, you weren't rude," Amy replied smiling at him. "No, to be honest, you are a very fine man."  
"Thank you," he muttered shyly. Then they kept silent for a while, both unsure what to do next.  
"Thanks for the chicken, it was delicious," Amy said then, feeling that she had to behave like that, not only because she was in the past.  
"Well... I'm sorry that it wasn't a more noble meal," Gareth smiled at her sadly.  
The young woman smiled back at him: "Don't worry. I love chicken." Then they laughed. For a moment they were both kind of relaxed for the first time.  
"Well..." he started then, again feeling unsure under her beautiful gaze, "if you have a moment... there is something I would like to show you."  
"Of course," Amy said. The young knight nodded, stood up and offered her his arm. Amy took it and he led her out of the door.

°°°°°°°°°°

Finally the four man reached the blacksmith, still discussing. "I will not do it," Lancelot said, again. Then he gestured to them to wait and went over to the old looking man. But actually that blacksmith wasn't that old, he was only drawn by his hard work.  
Meanwhile the others stood behind. "Then I'll do it, if he don't want to... I would love to hit that Gideon..." Gawain said still angry when he thought about that 'man'.  
Chris looked at him from head to toe: "No, I'm sorry... Lancelot would be a better candidate, according to your outer appearance. It's easier to change him into Arthur than you..." Then he turned to Michael: "By the way, do you have any idea about the 'acting' you've mentioned? I've no idea how to stop Gideon, really I haven't... And I guess we will gain not much time from our little show..."  
"Can't we just kill him?" Gawain asked.  
Chris looked at him in horror: "NO... we can't kill him, whatever happens..."  
"But why?" the knight asked confused. Because that would be the easiest way.  
"If we do, I wouldn't exist... my whole future would be gone," Chris explained, "And more important... The fact that I'm here and will be here when we kill him, can make the whole world collapse. It would just not be right anymore... like if you would go to the past to kill your own father before you're born."  
Gawain nodded, even if he didn't understood those things at all. He had just decided that this man would know what he was doing.  
"But how can we convince him, that destroying Excalibur isn't the solution he wants to have?" Michael asked understanding Chris's dilemma.  
"I really have no idea," the Elder-witch admitted frustrated. That whole situation was frustrating. That whole thing felt so wrong. And then that weird legend... He sighed, wishing his adult brother would be there with him. He would probably know what to do...  
At that moment Lancelot returned from his discussion with the blacksmith. "He will do it," he said, "but he will need at least three days."  
"What?" Chris and Michael exclaimed in union. "That's too long."

°°°°°°°°°°

"Piper, you have to trust me, ok?" It was Cole's voice. After she had stood up and left, Leo was ready to follow her, but Cole had stopped him and gone after the oldest of the Charmed Ones.  
"No, it's not. I can't... I just can't do as you say... stay here, looking at your faces and talking as if everything was fine, because it's not," she said, at the verge of tears.  
Cole took her hand softly: "I need you to trust me. I believe in Chris and I know he'll make it. He'll be back. I know that in the past you and I had our problems, but now I know you trust me, Piper. And you know how much I love your son, and how much I owe him. I would not leave him alone, but this time... This time he has to face this on his own, ok?" Piper shook her head and tried to get rid of him, but he grasped her arms firmly, though softly.  
"Cole, this is not right. I don't mind what Wyatt said. This is not right..."  
"Listen." Cole helped her sit on a chair and sat by her side afterwards. "Wyatt is in the future. If something had gone wrong, he would..."  
"He would have told us, I know," she said, resigned. "But that's no reason to stay behind and do nothing!"  
Cole smiled at her, and tried to comfort her: "That's a point, but remember that Wyatt said we should do nothing... You need to trust him, Piper, and trust Chris... he needs to be trusted."  
Piper frowned. "Of course I trust him, he's my son, what do you mean by that?" she asked, a little bit angry.  
Cole, however, was still smiling: "I know you trust him, in a way... But you worry about him too much. He's not a child anymore, remember? He's an Elder, he's even more powerful than you. What he needs is that his mother believes that he's able to do this, to make it back home."  
Piper looked him in the eyes, with hers welling up with tears: "But..."  
"He'll be fine. I promise."  
"How can you know?" she sobbed.  
Cole pressed her hand comfortingly: "Because I know him. He always makes it, Piper. He's a Halliwell, he's the son of his mother." He paused, letting his words work. Piper was still silent, assimilating what he was saying. "I always admired you: As a Charmed One, as a woman, as a wife and now as a mother. You're amazing. You took care of your sisters before and after Prue died, and you never gave up. Your son, Piper, is exactly like you. When I see him, I can see you in his face. He's resolute, brave and stubborn. And he's compassionate, and caring. He loves his family above all, Piper, he'd give his life for them..." he said.  
Piper startled at that: "That's what I am afraid of, Cole. He would die for us and..."  
"But he would not abandon us either." Cole cupped her chin and raised her face so that she looked him in the eyes: "He loves you and all of us so much that he would come from death if necessary, just like you. Piper, he'll be back. He knows you all need him so much. Everything's gonna be fine..."  
"But..." she sobbed again. "what if he can't...?"  
"He will."

°°°°°°°°°°

Gareth had led Amy through the castle again and then upwards a long and dark stairway which seemed to have no end. Finally Amy saw a little light and then they stepped out to the fresh air.  
Looking around Amy saw that she was on the highest tower of the castle. There was a knight, on patrol as it seemed, but Gareth asked him to leave for a moment. When he was gone, he turned to the young woman - the lady - next to him: "Do you like it?"  
Amy walked a little closer to the edge and looked around. She could see the whole city and the woods and fields beyond. It was an amazing view. "It's great," she whispered, "really breathtaking."  
Gareth smiled still looking at her. Amy fascinated him in a way no one else did before. It felt so weird, but it made him happy that she liked it up there. "Well... I like it here too... Sometimes I come up here just to think," he explained.  
Amy just nodded looking around amazed by all the things she could see from that spot. Even the hills where... where the cave was she had used as shelter. She sighed.  
"What's wrong?" Gareth asked, noticing that her look saddened.  
"Nothing," Amy said, "it's just that I did so much wrong the last days... Just because I thought I could find my parents..." She turned around to him, her eyes welling up with tears: "But they are dead... I knew it long before I came, but here... it was so weird and I let that Elder - the one you saw at the stables - blind me with faked hope... But now I know I was wrong... and I hope that it's not to late."  
Gareth had listen to her attentively, and he could hardly understand all that. But what was clear for him, was that she had lost her family and therefore he felt pity. "I'm sorry for your loss," he said.  
"Thanks," she said holding back her tears. She wouldn't cry, she had done that a lot of times before. Now was not the time for that. She wanted to enjoy the moment... that moment with him. She smiled and then she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. And lying her head on his chest, she muttered again: "Thank you very much for everything."  
The young knight was frozen in shock. He had never been so close to a lady before... maybe to his mother when he was a small boy, but... He was surprised that she put herself so close to him. That was so unusual. He couldn't help feeling a little scared by the feeling of her warm body next to his own. But still it felt good.  
Amy had noticed his tension and was short before regretting what she had done. 'What must he think about me now,' she thought. But then she felt his arms around her, his hands on her back, holding her softly. And she could hear his heart beating faster with every second. Slowly she looked up to let her eyes meet his. "I guess, that's not what ladies do in this place, right?" she asked.  
He nodded smiling shyly. But still his arms were around her, he wouldn't let her go.  
"I'm sorry," she said as shy as he was.  
Gareth still smiled: "Don't feel like that, my lady... I understood that you come from a place far away... and actually, even if it's confusing... I... I..." he didn't know how to describe how he felt. It was just weird.  
But the next moment, everything should become clear. Because Amy grabbed his neck and pulled him a little down to her. Then, tiptoeing, she gave him a soft kiss on his lips. And that second, Gareth was suffused by such a warm feeling of joy and excitement, like he had never felt it before. 'That must be love,' he thought while he kissed her back softly.  
Amy felt weird when he started to return the kiss. Actually she had thought he would back away from her but he didn't. And that feeling he gave her was just overwhelming. And right then she wished this moment would last forever.  
But then she sensed something. Scared she pulled away and looked down to the place before the castle.  
"I'm sorry... I," Gareth said, feeling that he had done something wrong. But then he noticed her look and stepped closer to see what it was that scared her so much. And then he saw him... that person from the stables. He was down there, among the people of Camelot, like he was one of them. He turned to Amy to say something just in the second she summoned her crossbow to her hand. The knight was frozen in shock when he saw that. That was something he definitely hadn't expected. For a moment he even forgot how to think.  
Amy meanwhile targeted the Elder carefully. But then she put the weapon down. "I can't," she said, "I just can't..."  
Gareth shook his head to pull himself back to reality: "What... what can't you?"  
"Kill him," she said. "I just can't do that..." And then she let the crossbow disappear again. Gareth looked from her to the man down on the place, and then back to Amy. "What does he want from you?" he asked.  
"He doesn't want me... he wants Excalibur," Amy said desperate.  
"What?" the knight exclaimed. "Then we have to warn the king..." With this he pulled her back to the stairs.  
But Amy stopped him. "I know, that's all difficult to understand," she said, "but you've seen him before. He can be in front of the king within a second if he wants..."  
"And what shall we do?"  
"Do you believe me when I say that I would never ever hurt you, because... because I'm actually falling in love with you?" she said feeling the desperation grow inside her.  
Gareth just nodded, even if he wasn't so sure about all that. He felt Amy grabbing his hand. "Trust me," she said and then... then he felt like fainting, while Amy orbed them to the first place that came to her mind.  
The next moment they heard the voice of Merlin: "What... why are you entering here that way???"  
When Gareth looked around, still feeling a little dizzy, he was in the room of the round table. How did he get there? He didn't know. But still... "We saw the man who was after Lady Amy," he announced.  
Meanwhile Amy yelled: "CHRIS! HE'S HERE!!!!

°°°°°°°°°°

The two Elders were still sitting, thoughtful and feeling powerless and helpless. They really needed... no, they really wanted to help Chris, but they knew there was nothing to do. Besides, there was something disturbing Odin's mind. Something on which he could not put the finger for some reason. But suddenly it came up.  
The Elder jumped on the chair he was sitting on, with his eyes wide open and his heart beating fast. "Oh, my..." he muttered.  
Silas startled and then looked at him confused: "What? Is there something wrong?" 'Worse than all this?' he thought to himself.  
"Gideon..." Odin mumbled.  
Silas leant to the front a little bit: "Sorry, I think I did not hear well..."  
But Odin turned to look at him very worried: "Gideon... Gideon, he was an Elder at that time. I was one too..."  
Silas understood less and less, but the mention of Gideon and at that time in which Chris was, made him thrill in fear. "You mean..."  
"I mean that I know where he exactly is. And Gideon is there, chasing him."  
"WHAT!!??" Now it was Silas that was truly scared, and jumped on his seat: "But how come you know that??"  
Odin stood up and started to pace around the room, followed by Silas's eyes: "I was there... When the legend of the trees was the main talk everywhere. King Arthur was worried, but witches and magical beings were being chased, and only Merlin had the right to be there... And Gideon? He was obsessed by something, a witch he said. I thought it was a girl, or maybe he said it, I don't remember... It was so long ago!"  
Silas stood up and went to his friend, grabbing his arm nervously to make him stop: "What are you talking about, Odin?"  
His friend's eyes looked scared to his, before saying: "Gideon is there, and he's after Chris. Gideon came to me for healing and... his wounds, he must have been hit by Elder-powers... It must have been Chris who he had fought with..."  
Silas went paler at these words. "Why... why didn't you tell me this before?" he stuttered.  
Odin shook his head: "I barely remember. I don't know why this came to my mind. All this reading must have triggered it somehow."  
"But if you remember that... You must know what happened, which is the end of this?" Silas ventured again.  
Odin fixed his eyes on him pensive for a while. "I... I don't know... Don't remember," he said.  
Silas swallowed. What should they do now?? Tell the Halliwells? Help Chris, somehow? Stay there and follow the Oracle's advice?

°°°°°°°°°°

They had still their mouths open, when Chris heard Amy's SOS cry in his head: "He's back. I have to go," he said.  
But Michael hurried to hold his arm. "You forget again that he can't see you!" he exclaimed.  
Gawain and Lancelot looked at each other expectantly. "I am going to tell him to make the sword, just in case... I'll tell him to hurry," Lancelot said, turning to go back to the blacksmith's workshop. Chris looked at his friend. He had to take Michael's appearance again... Or someone else? "I have an idea. And I'll be back," he announced. And then he orbed away leaving Michael and Gawain behind.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Merlin!" Chris exclaimed, appearing in front of the old man, who frowned at his sight. He and Arthur were walking through the long corridors of the castle. They had just left the room of the round table, and headed towards the sorcerer's chambers, to see if they could find out another way to help, when he orbed in front of them.  
"Who are you??" the sorcerer asked, confused, as Arthur looked at him curious and somehow worried. In front of him was standing a young, kind-looking, blonde man, but his features contracted in nervousness. They had never seen him before.  
But then suddenly he glamoured again, showing himself as Chris, that mysterious young man...  
"Sir Chris..." the king muttered.  
"I am sorry..." he replied and then turned to Merlin. "I need your help."  
The sorcerer looked at him, in shock. "What do you need from me?" he asked, surprised that someone so powerful as him needed his help.  
But Chris could not lose time. He grabbed his shoulder in a way that scared him. However, he did not mean anything bad: "I need my memories."  
"Your what???" Merlin was confused now.  
"My memories. Listen. I don't have time to explain, but I made a potion to forget my... other memories. I need them right now. And I need them only temporarily."  
Arthur looked at him more confused than ever: "What... which memories are you talking about? How is he supposed to give them back to you?"  
But Merlin was staring at him gravely: "I can help, I think... I have some memory potions... Are you sure they can help you?"  
Chris nodded peremptorily: "I hope they will, but it's an emergency."  
Merlin sighed and headed to his chamber followed by them. Once there, he gave him the potion and tried to explain the secondary effects and everything, but Chris didn't listen. He just took it and orbed away.  
Arthur looked at him worried and then turned to Merlin: "What is that for?" he asked.  
The sorcerer shrugged: "I don't know..."

°°°°°°°°°°

When Amy called for Chris, Merlin smirked slightly. Then he said calmly: "Nearer than you think, my dear..." And after saying that, he glamoured in front of the amazed look of young Gareth and Amy.  
The girl opened her eyes widely. That could not be true... But before she could do anything, she felt a cold pricking pain in her stomach. She took her hands to the hilt and metal that protruded from her body and then she raised her eyes, full of pain and incomprehension, to the man that had just stabbed her: Gideon.  
"NOO!!" Gareth cried, taking his own sword out of his sheath, as he saw in horror how the girl fell on her knees, gasping in pain.  
Gideon laughed soundly. "My dear young knight... Don't make me kill you, please..." Gideon said, flinging him through the whole room.  
Gareth fell on his back, crying in pain. But Amy... She was dying... And that caused him more pain than anything in the world.  
Then Gideon looked at the young girl. "I am sorry, my Lady," he said in a mocking tone, "but you failed to fulfil your part of the deal. Go to join your family, I am sure they're waiting for you..." He said, raising his hand.

* * *

_(Chapter 9 written by Belén and Chrissy.W.x)  
_


	10. Chapter 10

**A Charmed Story - Part Ten:  
An Elder's Tale  
Chapter 10**

Amy was ready to receive his final blow, when something passed by her hair flying and almost grazing her, something that went straight into Gideon's chest. It was Gareth's sword, he had just stood up and thrown it...  
But to his amazement, Gideon only grimaced slightly in pain, stumbled a little bit, and then, smirked as he took the sword out of his body. His bleeding wound was healed at the moment.  
"You stupid young man, go to play with your dragons and giants," he said furious, as he threw the sword, telekinetically, against Gareth.  
The young man stepped backwards, scared and knowing that he would not be able to do much, when the sword changed its direction and got stuck on the wall by his side, at the very same moment that a blonde man appeared in the middle of those amazing blue lights, similar to those of Amy's. He swallowed, trembling, and then looked at the woman. She had fallen limply to the floor, and had lost her consciousness.  
"Who... who are you?" Gideon asked, who was really shocked now, by that man's sudden appearance. When that man came closer, he noticed his Elder robe and he could feel that he was one, too. But he did not know him at all... What if it was a trap?  
"I come from the future," he said. "My name's Silas. I come to warn you that you are making the worst mistake of your life."  
Gideon blinked, and then smirked. "Why should I believe you?" he asked, looking at Amy out of the corner of his eye. The girl was already very pale, and that weak knight cried as a woman by her side.  
"Because..." the Elder said, "I am gonna show you." He could feel Amy's life fading away, but he could not lose his concentration on Gideon or he would attack from behind. He had to act fast. "Take my hand."  
Gideon stared at him and then at his hand, and after some seconds he took it reluctantly. Silas was looking at him fiercely, when all those images started to strike the other Elder.  
"Amy..." Gareth was mumbling behind them. "You need to hold on, ok??"  
Silas felt a thrill at the sound of those words, but kept on looking at Gideon who was seeing very interesting things by now.  
The traitor was at that moment in the future. He was seeing himself, with Leo, even if he did not know who he was. But he was going to be the mentor of that young man, his best friend. And then, he saw himself supporting his wedding to a witch. Of course he'll do that... And then... Then he saw the sword. It came back to life. And he was with this Elder, with Silas. He saw a blonde baby, and he felt hatred, so much hatred... And the he saw himself, trying to kill him. The baby's family and another young man tried to stop him, but Gideon fought them back, stabbed the young man to death... Then he took the baby. And with this last picture, the vision finished.  
Gideon looked at Silas, startled. "What was that?" he asked.  
"That's the future. That baby, that's the true danger, and not the people who came. This is what is going to happen, and I will be with you. You will not tell me the story at first, but later you will. And you asked me to come back here, to stop you from doing a mistake. Because first, the history has to be repeated. You can not touch the sword now. It has to get to his future owner, and then we'll come into action."  
Gideon frowned: "I don't understand..."  
Silas turned to Amy, unable to bear the situation anymore. At least now, Gideon was interested in something, so he knelt down to the girl, and put his hands on her body, starting to heal her.  
Gareth looked at the golden light amazed, his eyes full of tears.  
"It's not so difficult to understand. Leave the sword alone. Arthur came to this world to take care of it, and he's the right one to do it. Don't worry about that legend. The sword is safe, and will be safe until our future."  
"But... How am I supposed to know when it's the right time?" he asked, still unbelieving.  
Silas finished healing Amy, who woke up gasping for air. She saw the strange man over her and frowned, but Gareth did not let her say a word. He hugged the girl with all his strength, crying, and Silas smiled.  
Then he turned to Gideon: "You will know, I assure you. And we'll fulfil our task. I promise, we'll save the world from the evil that threatens it." His words were somehow full of hatred, hidden hatred, that Gideon did not notice. However, he was worried about something else. He looked at the young couple on the ground. If the Elders knew that...  
"You did this for the greater good, don't worry. I won't tell anyone."  
Gideon nodded slightly, still suspicious, but the man was staring at him very intensely. "For the greatest good... Yes," Gideon said, still shocked by what he had just seen. Then he looked at the couple again, and orbed away. He needed to confirm all that. He needed to make sure that it was not a trick. But he had seen the future. He would take care of the real danger...  
When he had disappeared, Silas did so, too, and Chris's body took his place. Gareth looked at him surprised and scared, but when Amy turned to him, she smiled widely and letting go off Gareth, jumped to his arms and hugged him tightly. "I knew you'd come..." she said.  
"How could I not?" Chris whispered to her ear, hugging her back. He was relieved that she was alright.  
Gareth looked annoyed at the couple. Surly he was relieved that she was fine, that he had saved her - in which way ever... But... Maybe it wasn't so special for her being so close to someone, but it had been for him. And now he felt jealous that she was hugging that man. But then he thought: 'Maybe it's better that way... she's such a weird person and all that magic around her...' He sighed, lowering his eyes. Still he felt jealous and that hurt.  
Chris had noticed the look of the young knight and couldn't help smiling. Then he pushed Amy softly away and turned to him. Stretching out his hand he said: "Sir Gareth, right? Well... I have to thank you for protecting this young Lady here... Respect, you did a good job!"  
The young knight blushed, but took Chris's hand to shake it. Then he turned to Amy: "So... you come from the... the future?" She nodded. He sighed then asked: "I guess you have to go back, right?"  
Amy just looked at him, suddenly realising her difficult situation. She didn't want to go back... she wanted to stay with him. But was that possible. Could she stay or would she mess up the time if she would do so...? Her eyes welling up in tears, she looked at Chris beggingly.  
The Elder-witch smiled: "Well..." But suddenly he felt dizzy. He frowned, shaking his head in order to clear his vision. But the feeling didn't leave him.  
Amy and Gareth looked at him worried. He was suddenly so pale.  
Chris felt more and more unsteady... He began to see pictures and hear voices, and they became louder and louder inside him. Holding his head he yelled in pain.  
"Chris!" Amy exclaimed worried as the Elder-witch sank to the ground. Gareth rushed to him, even if he didn't know what to do.  
"Mer... Mer...lin..." Chris mumbled as the memories of his past lives were overflowing his mind.  
"Merlin..." Amy said and looked at the young knight, "we have to find him."

°°°°°°°°°°

When Lancelot returned, he looked at Gawain and Michael confused. Chris was nowhere to see. "What happened?" he asked.  
"He's gone," Gawain said grumpy, "he disappeared."  
Michael swallowed. Even if he knew that Gawain was friendly to them, he still couldn't help fearing him, when he was in a bad mood like that... especially when his eyes were focused on him, whenever something weird happened.  
"So... don't you think we should follow him?" Lancelot asked the other knight.  
"He said, we should wait here," Michael remarked hesitating and Gawain nodded.  
"But maybe he needs our help," Lancelot said and turning to Michael he asked: "He can feel where we are, right? That's how you found us again in the woods." Michael looked at him kind of shocked, then he nodded.  
"So, that means, he will find us, when he wants to..." Lancelot reasoned, "that means... I'll go back to the room of the round table, I guess he's there... Maybe he'll need us." With that he went ahead. Gawain and Michael looked at each other, then they followed Lancelot.

°°°°°°°°°°

Angela looked at her watch and sighed. It was already half past eleven. "Are you sure this is right?" she asked.  
"Yeah... I think so..." Bianca said and also Piper nodded. She had returned to the others after her talk with Cole.  
Angela sighed again: "But Michael is just human... what if something happens to him...?"  
"Nothing will happen to him," Cole said, "I'm sure he's fine. And he has Chris on his side, he will protect him."  
Phoebe looked at Wyatt who had fallen asleep on her lap. She caressed his hair softly and smiled. But then she was thrown into a premonition.  
_She saw Chris in the new sunroom. He was caring Wyatt under his arm, playfully... The child of maybe seven or eight was laughing heartily. And Christopher and Hope were there too, following them, before they jumped onto Chris to tickle him.  
And then she saw Michael sitting in one of those chairs observing his friend smiling, holding a new born baby lovingly. Next to him, she saw Angela with the tired but satisfied look of a recently became mother. And she saw the kids approaching them and looking at the small piece of life in Michael's arms.  
"Was I that small, too?" Hope asked childishly. Chris just nodded smiling.  
"When she's growing up, I'll marry her," Wyatt stated determined and the adults started to laugh._  
Then Phoebe was back.  
"What happened?" Bianca asked, who sat besides her.  
Phoebe was a little confused, but then smiled widely... "Nothing... I just saw a picture of a very weird but happy family," she explained and her eyes turned a little glassy. "They will be fine... both of them..."  
At that moment bluish orbing lights filled the room. Angela and Bianca rose their eyes full of hope, but it had been only Silas and Odin.  
"Anything new?" they both asked just to see all the heads shaking softly. Odin sighed: "Up there it's the same."  
"So what are you doing here?" Leo asked.  
Silas shrugged: "We did all we could... actually we felt a little like... I don't know... We just thought we could also wait here till they are back..."  
"Yeah," Odin said nodding, "we just thought it's easier not to wait alone. That is, if we don't disturb you." He sighed. He had still a bad feeling about all that since he remembered those small pieces of the past. But he wouldn't tell them, he didn't want them to worry...  
Piper sighed and rose: "Well... so welcome here... do you like some tea?" Both Elders nodded.  
While Piper went to the kitchen Phoebe noticed that Wyatt's sleep became a little uneasy, but then he calmed down again. Bianca had noticed that, too. And she remembered what had happened earlier that day, but she wouldn't say anything.

°°°°°°°°°°

Gareth immediately walked to the door to go and find the sorcerer but Amy took him by the arm: "Please, stay with Chris... I think I can find Merlin faster, you know?" The young night nodded and when Amy disappeared in those blue lights, he went back to Chris.  
The Elder-witch winced in pain. He was still caught in flashbacks, it felt like there were hundreds of needles in his head.  
Gareth stood there, not knowing what to do. Then he knelt down next to him and tried to calm him down.  
Moments later Michael, Lancelot and Gawain entered the room. The huge door, which Gawain closed, gave such a bang that the young knight startled. But seeing who had entered, he awkwardly rose.  
When Michael saw his friend sitting there in so much pain, he went over to him in shock: "Chris? CHRIS!"  
Gawain went to his little brother. He was so annoyed by all that, he almost shouted when he asked: "What happened here!?!"  
Gareth hesitated and stared at the floor. What should he say, he didn't know what happened... He could only say what he had seen, and that was not much... "This man, Chris, he talked to the one we saw in the stables, he made him leave. He saved Amy's life, too. Then he..."  
Before he could say more bluish orbing lights filled the room. It was Amy who came orbing in with Merlin on her side. The sorcerer immediately went to Chris and started to examine him. But he already knew what was going on... the secondary effects of the potion. It was made for bringing back lost memories, but the more there is that was lost, the more the person has to suffer by the impact. Less did he know, that Chris had the memories of more than on life to deal with. But Merlin did notice his serious condition. He had to give him the antidote. Only there was a little problem.  
"He needs an antidote, but I don't have it," he announced.  
"Well, then you have to make some," Michael said frustrated.  
Merlin nodded: "I know, but I can't. The potion needs to be made in the light of the full moon."  
Michael looked confused, not understanding what the sorcerer wanted to say. Hesitating he asked: "So where's the problem?"  
But Lancelot understood and turned to him with a worried look: "The next full moon is in another week."  
"WHAT??" Michael exclaimed, unable to believe his ears. He turned to Chris with his heart shrunk. He was suffering too much... And he wasn't even sure why.  
The Elder-witch was sitting on the floor, bent on his stomach and holding his head, pressing his temples with all his strength, gritting his teeth trying not to cry... But tears were running down his cheeks. He gasped in pain...  
Those secondary effects... He hadn't cared about it, when Merlin had tried to warn him. He just wanted to save the sword. And he had had those memories before, so he knew what to expect. They had been painful the first time, yes, but in another sense, not that literary. However, the fact that all of them had come back at once might be hitting his mind with a new force. He let go a groan almost unaware of it.  
Gareth was still looking amazed at Chris, unable to understand what was going on; more or less like all the others. Amy had stepped backwards to him and he held her tight, with the hope that someone had a better solution.  
"A week???!!!" Michael was still saying, while he knelt down next to his friend.  
Lancelot had squatted by his side and pressed his shoulder in the attempt to help him calm down without success. He could not understand either what had happened to the young sorcerer, and was suffering for him.  
"We don't have a week for God's sake, look at him! He doesn't even have a day..." Michael went on, pointing at his friend who was completely defeated by agony.  
Chris's pain was not only physical, of course, but also psychological. All those memories had come back at the same time, as a stroke of lightning. He was seeing all that pain again. All that suffering. He was seeing how he had died once and again in all those deleted timelines. Gideon stabbing him to death... His father by his side, telling him to hold on. But he could not hold on... Wyatt coming from his time and killing him, piercing him with Excalibur. Bianca's death... So much pain... So much... He had taken that potion to forget all that, to stop that magic, to free his little self from that horrible legacy. But he had had to bring those memories back. He had had to remember just to save the world... Again.  
Chris could hear the voices around him... how Lancelot tried to make him calm down, how Michael was freaking out, and Merlin explaining something about a full moon, and Gawain was asking questions, and Amy... she had been trying to help. Oh, he hated that so much. Making all them worry about him...  
"It's... It's...ok... Mik... Mike..." he stuttered, grabbing Lancelot's hand. But he could not say more. The pain was too strong. He did not even hear what Merlin said at that moment, sadly.  
"We can find a way, but he can not go on like that..." Opening a little bottle he had hanging on his chest, he made Chris drink before the attentive look of the others.  
Chris drank almost without noticing. It was bitter, but suddenly... Suddenly nothing.  
Lancelot saw in horror how his friend fell limply in his arms, and held him tightly.  
"What have you done, Merlin?" Michael asked, terrified. Had Chris died??  
"Chris..." was Amy's scared and almost inaudible voice. Gareth pressed her hand strongly, feeling that she would faint. He had felt so jealous of that... witch, or whatever. But seeing him in pain was not good. He hated that. And he hated the idea that he was dying because of them.  
But Merlin immediately shook his head: "He's just sleeping. We need time to find a way to create that antidote. He will sleep for about two hours... Don't worry."  
Michael had taken his friend's hand. "Won't he have nightmares?" he asked, feeling his pulse untrustingly.  
Merlin shook his head again: "The potion he just took will prevent him from having any kind of dream. It's like a lethargic state. And now... We need a full moon before those two hours." Silence grew among them, after those words.  
Lancelot swallowed and took Chris's body, raising up. "I guess he'll need to be comfortable, at least..." he said, ready to take him to some room.  
Amy took a step forward and grabbed his arm: "I can take you both in a faster way..."

°°°°°°°°°°

"My Lady..." it was Arthur's voice.  
Guinevere startled but then she composed herself very fast and turned her face to smile at her husband: "My Lord... I have missed you today..." Arthur smiled back with a hint of sadness in his countenance, and took some steps towards her. She was so beautiful... So beautiful... He almost caressed her with his look, only that.  
She chuckled a little bit. "Is everything fine, Arthur?" she asked.  
He nodded: "Whenever I see you it's as if everything was alright. You have that power over me, my queen..."  
She smiled sadly and shook her head with a sigh as she stood up and went to her husband, placing her arms around his neck. "But there's something wrong..." she stated.  
The king just kept staring at her, at her beautiful big eyes, her skin, her smile. Then he said: "Things will be fine soon. I know. That young man that came from the future... He has the solution to all of our problems." He answered, dreamily.  
But her smile turned sadder. "To all of them..." she almost muttered.  
Arthur understood immediately. Or at least, he thought he had understood: "We'll have that heir, Guinevere. Some day. Just be patient and God will bless us with his gift."  
Guinevere listened to him with sadness, but there was something else in her mind. Arthur kissed her softly, not letting her say a word at that respect. But she kept her eyes open and did not move for a while. Then she did; she kissed him back, but a single tear ran down her cheek as she touched her neck, her chest, in search of something that was not there; that would not be there anymore... And Arthur was kissing her passionately. He loved her so much... So much.

°°°°°°°°°°

Amy had orbed Lancelot and Chris, and Michael who wouldn't leave Chris's side, to a small room in the eastern part of the castle. Lancelot's own room to be exact. It was the best place the knight could think of.  
While Lancelot laid Chris down on the bed, Michael observed his friend with worry.  
A few moments later Merlin entered the room, followed by Gareth, who immediately stepped to Amy's side, and Gawain.  
Merlin put a few things, which he brought with him, down on the table next to the bed. Then he turned to Chris to check on him. Luckily he was still deep asleep. At least this potion seemed to work well.  
Finally he straightened himself and turned to Amy: "Young lady, could you bring me to my chamber, I will try to find a solution for this..."  
"You will leave his side?" Michael asked scared.  
"There isn't much I can do while being here, but I have a lot of papers in my chambers..." the sorcerer explained and Michael nodded.  
Amy nodded, too: "I'll take you there."  
"I'm coming with you," Gareth exclaimed. But Amy hold him back asking him to look after Chris and call her if anything should change. The young knight nodded, visibly unhappy. He didn't want to leave her alone. But on the other hand he couldn't deny her this little request.  
So he, his brother, Lancelot and Michael watched as Merlin and Amy orbed away.

°°°°°°°°°°

As soon as they reached the tower Merlin nervously started looking through a shelf full of potions, most of them were very dusty and so was the shelf... there must've been more than four hundred potions on that rack, still it looked like Merlin didn't found what he was looking for. "No! I had hoped there is some vial left, but there isn't!"  
"Can't we just try to make a new one?" Amy asked. "I know we need the moon, but can't we at least try? Maybe it works even without it?"  
Merlin finally agreed that it was worth to try and started to mix up all the incredents. Amy watched every single move of the sorcerer. Inexperienced as she was, she was very interested in all that stuff.  
"Damned!" Merlin cursed suddenly, making Amy startle.  
"What happened?" she asked.  
"I knew it... I knew it wouldn't work..." the sorcerer said, gesturing wild with his hands, "the potion was supposed to turn into a clear yellow, but it didn't... it will not work!"

°°°°°°°°°°

Almost one and a half hour had passed when Merlin returned with the girl on his tail. Both looked sad, yes, defeated. They had tried everything but it was useless.  
Michael who was sitting next to his friend, holding his hand, let his head drop on the side of the bed. He couldn't believe that this was how this story was supposed to end. He just couldn't.  
"I'm sorry," Merlin announced to the questioning looks of the knights. Meanwhile Gareth went over to Amy, unsure how to handle this situation, but finally putting an arm around her.  
"What do you mean, you're sorry?" Lancelot asked.  
"I tried everything," the sorcerer explained, "but I can't find a solution. There is no way to create this potion without the light of the full moon."  
Suddenly Amy had an idea. She turned to Lancelot and said: "The moon does not have light."  
Lancelot turned to her at the sound of those words. What was she talking about?? "Of course it has, you just need to look at it, it's..." He was laughing sarcastically.  
But Michael interrupted him: "She's right... It's difficult to explain, but she's right... The moon just reflects the light of the sun... "  
"Which means that what we need is the light of the sun reflected upon a round body like the Moon. A big one, enough to create that kind of light. It must have the same aspect, at least the same colors as the Moon," Amy explained.  
But Michael shook his head: "I doubt it's actually the light which we need. I guess it's the tide-thing, the moon-phase's influence on the world." He sighed. "And there is no way to simulate that... damn it!" He threw his fist against the wall in frustration.  
Lancelot and Gawain shared some worried looks, while Merlin was still trying to understand what those two had been talking about. Amy looked down ashamed that she hadn't thought about that.  
At that moment Chris began to stir. Moaning slightly he started to toss around in the bed. And then he kind of woke up, with a yell so full of pain that everyone was shocked to the bones.

°°°°°°°°°°

When the nothingness left him, the pain returned to Chris's head. First slowly - a few pictures flashing through his brain. But then all the things hit him again with the full strength. He saw himself again - fighting his own brother... killed by him, by Gideon, by Barbas, by other creatures... He even saw himself killed by Cole - that one time he failed to resist his brother's powers. And he saw him fighting with Wyatt... a sword fight. "I should be the owner!" his brother yelled. "You know it's not true, you're not meant to..." Chris shouted back. They were fighting hard with no mercy. They were fighting for their lives...

°°°°°°°°°°

After his yell, Chris had sank back to the pillow again. Tossing and sweating he lied there and no one knew how to help him.  
"... not true... not meant to..." they heard him mutter.  
Michael felt desperate. What should he do? He needed to help him, but he couldn't. If at least one of the family would be there... someone who KNEW about magic. But Michael was not more than a little informed about the things at the surface. At least, that's what he himself thought. Nevertheless he HAD to do something... but what? 'Who could heal Chris form that pain... who could heal... heal...? Elders could... an Elder... and old Elder... ODIN!' Michael closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'Chris will kill me,' he thought. But still he was sure this would be their only chance. "ODIN!" he screamed with all what was left inside him, hoping that he was already one of them. "ODIN I KNOW YOU'RE LISTENING... FOR GOD'S SAKE GET YOU ASS DOWN HERE!!! ANOTHER ELDER NEEDS YOU!!!!"  
At that moment the king entered the room. He had heard Chris's yell, probably all the persons in the castle had. And now he heard Michael yell as well. "What's going on here?" he asked.  
Lancelot turned to him and whispered: "I guess he's trying to contact someone who could help that young man..."  
Then Arthur noticed the state Chris was in. "What happened to him?" he asked while Michael yelled again.  
Lancelot shrugged: "I'm not sure... He did something to that Gideon and he left... he..."  
"He convinced him that the sword means no danger..." Gareth interrupted him. "My king, I was there when it happened. After that other man was gone, that... Chris broke down, yelling in pain."  
"It's a side-effect of the potion," Merlin added.  
Arthur sighed: "He risked a lot to save us all... he's a great man."  
"ODIN, DAMNED!!! WILL YOU LET HIM DIE JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO COWARDLY TO COME DOWN FOR A FEW MINUTES! NO ONE HERE WILL HURT YOU..." Michael's voice became more and more beggingly "PLEASE ODIN!!! PLEEEEAAAASE!"  
Suddenly the room was filled with bluish orbing lights and then a man appeared in the middle of them. He looked like an old man - at least for the people from the middle age - wearing a dress made of white and golden cloth and it seemed he was bathed in a magical light.  
All the knights and the king took a deep bow when they saw him, and stayed in that position. Michael just stood in front of that Elder, his arms crossed in front of his chest: "That was high time!"

°°°°°°°°°°

The digital clock on the car-radio showed 23:14 when Kyle stopped in front of the manor. Paige sighed.  
"You don't want to go in?" he asked.  
"No," she admitted.  
Kyle smiled: "Because Chris is missing?"  
Paige nodded and turned to him: "Everyone in there will be in a bad mood... especially Piper and Bianca, and Angela of course... Because we decided not to fight this time..."  
"Difficult situation," Kyle said nodding. Then he asked: "Shall I come with you? I mean... if you need some help... I would like to support you..."  
Paige smiled as he caressed her cheek. "You really don't need to do that... And you have to work tomorrow..."  
"I've the evening shift tomorrow... So there is no problem. And actually I would like to spend some more time with you."  
Paige chuckled and then she drew him into a long kiss. "Ok, if you really want to..." she whispered.  
"I do," he said and kissed her back again. Then he left the car and hurried to open the door for the woman he loved so much.  
"Thanks," Paige said and took his arm. Smiling they went up the stairs.  
When they reached the living room a few moments later, Kyle and the Elders eyed each other surprised.  
"Nice to see you again," Kyle greeted. Silas and Odin nodded.  
Piper sighed: "Why did you bring him home with you?"  
Her youngest sister rolled her eyes: "Because he's my friend... and he said he wanted to be there for me..."  
"If this is not my place..." Kyle said hesitating, "I mean... I could..."  
"No... stay," Phoebe said, "please." And when Piper saw the warning look of the empath she added: "Yeah... sorry... we're just all a little freaked out at the moment... Do you like a tea?"  
Cole couldn't help chuckling. That seemed to be everyone's favourite sentence of the day...

°°°°°°°°°°

Odin had looked furious at that young male human being who had dared to call him like that, with that huge lack of respect. He wasn't even a witch, how could he know about the Elders, how could he know HIM? But when Michael started to explain Odin's eyes grew wider and wider.  
"So... you and me are... are friends in your future?" he asked then.  
Michael nodded: "Kind of... you're the friend of my friend..." He turned pointing at Chris and added: "Him!"  
Meanwhile the other had rose, too. But none of them dared to speak. That man in his rope... 'He looked like God,' Arthur thought. But Merlin knew it better. He knew who that person was, and now he felt it was time for him to speak.  
"That man... he has taken a potion which shall bring back surpressed memories. But I know now that he has not only one memory he has lot's of them... all at the same time. That's why he's suffering," he explained, while Odin nodded. "He needs an antidote, but this has to be created in the light of a full moon... which we don't have at the moment."  
"We thought about that the light of the moon is only a reflection of the sunlight and..." Michael said, but was suddenly interrupted by Odin's laugh.  
Meanwhile Chris was still mumbling words without any sense. Amy felt his forehead, it was burning. "We need to hurry," she announced.  
The Elder calmed down and looked at the mortal human being: "You know a lot about the elements in the sky... but what you don't know is that the moon, even if he's not emitting light on his own, has a special effect on all things down here on earth... like the tides for example."  
Michael rolled his eyes: "Yeah... I know... I was just going to that point... well whatever... we NEED a full moon and we need it NOW!"  
The Elder sighed looking at the young man lying on that bed so weak. He couldn't believe he was an Elder, but still he felt his powers, lots of powers and... he was absolutely alive... yet. 'Amazing,' he thought. Could it really be that in the future they would be friends? 'Well there is only one way to find it out,' he thought to himself and then turned to Merlin and Michael. "I think I know a way to help you... I guess I know a place where the effects of the moon are strong enough... Merlin, grasp all the things you need, and then we make a little journey." The sorcerer nodded and packed his stuff. Meanwhile the Elder said to the one who had called him: "He'll be fine again..."  
Michael sighed: "Thanks..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris could hear the voices around him... 'was that Odin?' he thought. But the thought was washed away by another painful memory that hit him... his mother's death. Not that he hadn't remembered that before, but not in hundreds of different versions. One time he even saw how his brother stabbed her.  
Suddenly he felt something cold on his forehead. He tried to open his eyes, but his vision was blurred. So he couldn't see the sad smile of the queen who had followed her husband, and now tried to help that poor man, who had risked so much for them.  
Chris head hurt, his mind hurt... he felt like losing it. But he couldn't give up. "Mickey," he whispered, closing his eyes again. He had to bring him back... he just head to. He had to save him.  
Another memory hit him. A dying Bianca, telling him that she was disappointed because he couldn't make their dreams come true. This one version Bianca hated him, he could see it in her eyes. He had failed her, and therefore she hated him. And he felt that he cried again.

°°°°°°°°°°

Odin and Merlin were gone for a couple of minutes now. Amy, who took care of Chris, together with Guinevere, looked at him swallowing. She had nearly killed him, and what has he done? He had saved her, risking his own life.  
Gareth went over to her, and put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry my lady... I'm sure he will make it."  
Amy turned around to him with watery eyes. Then she threw herself to his arms and started to cry.  
Gareth felt a little uncomfortable first, because everyone was watching them - especially his brother. But then he relaxed enjoying the feeling that washed over him, and hugged her back tightly to calm her down.  
Seeing this, the queen smiled. Then her eyes met those of Lancelot for a second. For a moment there was something sparkling in her look, but then it was away again and she turned to her husband. "My lord, how long will Merlin need to come back?" she asked.  
"I don't know," he answered.  
Michael looked from him back to Chris: "I hope they will hurry."  
The following moments everyone kept silent, submerged in their own thoughts. But the most twisted thoughts were those of Gareth. On one hand he wanted that witch, or whatever, to be fine, because he had saved their lives. But on the other hand... If he would be fine, he would go back to where they come from... And then he would lose the one he loved. He sighed slightly and unnoticed by the still crying girl in his arms. 'I will not let you go,' he thought, 'never.'  
A few minutes later Odin and Merlin returned, the latter one with a clear yellow potion in his hands. Under the attentive look of Michael, the sorcerer made Chris drink the potion.  
First it seemed that the Elder-witch would relax, and Michael and Lancelot sighed relieved. But then he began to shake uncontrollably, making everyone in the room freak out. That attack lasted less than a minute, then there was silence. The young man wasn't moving anymore.  
"Chris... Chris?" his friend said while shaking him. But the Elder-witch didn't respond.

* * *

_(Chapter 10 written by Belén, Chrissy.W.x and Darklighter)  
_


	11. Chapter 11

**A Charmed Story - Part Ten:  
An Elder's Tale  
Chapter 11**

Suddenly the pain was gone... the memories were gone. Chris felt relieved and free, so amazingly free.  
Slowly he opened his eyes to see that he was standing in front of a lake, a lake he had never seen before. Confused he turned around, calling for his friends. But there was nobody to see.  
Then he heard the water bubbling, and when he turned around he saw a swirl in the middle of the lake. In the center of it, a woman appeared. 'She looks beautiful,' he thought.  
Slowly she came closer, walking over the water. She smiled and stopped only about two yards away from him. "Hello Chris, my Lord..." she greeted him softly and took a bow.  
"Where am I?" Chris asked "Who are you?"  
"I'm Vivienne," she said softly, "I'm the Dame of the Lake."  
He narrowed his eyes, looking at her as if he could find out this way, if this was a dream or if he was dead or whatever... Whatever, he was sure that he couldn't trust his eyes.  
"Oh, I'm real... Real as you my Lord," she said as if she had read his thoughts.  
"What do you want?" Chris asked back. "Why am I here?"  
She just smiled kindly at him. Then she spoke: "Do you know the legend of the trees?" And as Chris nodded she went on: "There it is said that a man will come from far away, to find the truth of his destiny. A man who is only a half, but still a complete man. A man who will come to save the sword and Camelot. A man with a true pure and good heart like King Arthur himself. A man with a sense for what's right, for what's good. A man who is able to take the sword, to take Excalibur to his own hands. This man is supposed to be the new owner of the sword when his time is coming, when the sword comes to him in his own time and place."  
Chris just looked at her unbelieving. 'She can't really mean this, can she?' he thought.  
But Vivienne just nodded: "Yes, my Lord... you ARE that person the legend is talking about."  
"No-no-no... God NO! That's impossible... I'm not the one who is supposed to have it... it's the sword of my brother!" Chris yelled back at her, not really knowing why he was yelling. But she just kept smiling.  
"He's the one... it's Wyatt sword... He's the one who always had it... He's the twice blessed, the force of good... It is his! It can't be me. It just can't... I'm just... I... I..."  
"You what?" she asked softly.  
Chris sighed. He was surprised how fast he seemed to run out of arguments. But still... It couldn't be him. "Look," he tried it again, "as long as I can think back, everyone said that Excalibur belongs to my brother and only to him. Even the Elders did... and... They can't be all wrong, they just can't!"  
The Dame of the Lake was still smiling. "That's true," she said then. "It also belongs to your brother... to that brother who is the other half... Because that's what you are, both of you. You are two pieces of the complete thing. You both own the sword... and no one else."  
Was she really putting Christopher into that discussion? 'How could she know about mini-me,' Chris thought.  
"You already know it my Lord. I know you heard the sword calling, I know you felt it's power... I even know you held it once in your hands, in a past life... in a life where you knew the truth."  
Chris swallowed remembering that memory of the fight with his brother where he had Excalibur. And he remembered that it had felt good... But still...  
"Why are you afraid, Chris?" Vivienne asked then, realising why he was hesitating to admit the truth.  
Chris didn't know what to say. He was confused by all that. Could that be? Could that really be? He didn't know the answer. But if it's true... if it's true and the now good Wyatt would get the sword when he's old enough... _"The sword only serves it's true owner, the wrong one will be corrupted by his powers,"_ his mother had said every time when he wanted to hold the sword when he was a child and watched Wyatt practising with it. 'Oh God...' he thought, 'Wyatt could still turn evil!'  
Meanwhile Vivienne had stepped closer to him. Softly she touched his cheek as a tear fall from his eyes. Chris closed them and took a deep breath, trying to calm down his emotions.  
"Why are you so afraid of yourself?" she asked again.  
"I can't be the one... I... I can't..."  
She smiled again: "You can find it out easily... Just call for it and if I'm wrong it will not appear."  
Chris swallowed again, thinking about that. She was right, there should be nothing happen. He nodded. "Ok, I'll try, but it will not work," he said, hoping that he was right. The Dame of the Lake stepped a little aside and Chris took a deep breath before he stretched out his right hand and called: "EXCALIBUR!"  
Just a blink of an eye later a bright white light appeared around his hand and when it faded away, all that remained was the sword. Chris was like frozen in shock when he felt the cold metal in his hand. Not able to move he felt the power of Excalibur suffusing him. It was a warm and peaceful feeling... 'That feels damn good,' he thought.  
But then he dropped the sword to the ground, scared. "No!" he exclaimed. 'I won't let it corrupt me,' he thought.  
Vivienne stepped to his side again, placing a hand on his shoulder to turn him around to face her. Knowing about his fears she said: "You are not him, Chris... He wasn't meant to have the sword, but you ARE! You are the one to control it's powers to do the right things. You and your other half. Because you have that pure good heart." And with the last words she put her hand on his chest.  
Chris swallowed again, but said nothing. Actually he didn't know what to say. He couldn't deny that it had felt good to hold Excalibur. And... she was the Dame of the Lake, she SHOULD know who was meant to have the sword, right?  
"Come one, Chris," Vivienne said, "take the sword, so that you can go home."  
Chris looked at her, then he smiled. Yeah... she was right. He bent down and picked Excalibur up again, weighing it in his hand.  
Vivienne smiled: "That's what I wanted to see... Now I have to go back, my Lord... Have a save journey back home." She nodded to him and the Elder-witch replied the gesture.  
Then the Dame of the Lake was fading same as his surroundings. Chris felt a little like spinning and closed his eyes for a moment. And when he opened them again, he was lying in a bed, looking at the ceiling.  
Slowly he rose just to meet three swords which were pointing at him. Confused he looked around, to meet the shocked looks of the others, especially Michael's. That's when he realised that he held Excalibur in his hand.  
Chris made the attempt to stand, but one of the swords came closer to his throat.  
"Don't move," was Lancelot's voice. He was staring at him with an amazed look full of disappointment and confusion.  
Gawain and Gareth were also surprised, a little bit pale for what they had seen. Michael could not believe his eyes, but for other reasons, Odin was somehow angry, and Amy and Guinevere were shocked by the last happenings.  
But Arthur and Merlin appeared calmer, and when Chris crossed his eyes with them, the king even smiled slightly.  
Chris had never been so confused in his life. He had Excalibur... It was his... Or it would belong to him, some day... That was a dream. Or maybe a nightmare. He swallowed, feeling the sharp end of his friend's sword on his throat, and let go off Excalibur, which fell on the floor.  
He looked Lancelot in the eyes and could see his worries, but at that moment, when he was about to say something, Arthur stepped forward and pushed the sword gently from his throat.  
"There's no need for this, Lancelot..." he said with a soft but secure voice.  
"But, my Lord..." he did not really know what to do. Chris was his friend, but he had taken the sword... He had invoked it!! For a moment of panic, he had thought that Chris was actually there to get the sword for himself, as they had interpreted from the legend of the trees. He had just taken it with magic from the king's hands! But now it was Arthur himself that wanted to help Chris.  
The king smiled at him, and at Chris, pushing the other swords apart too. "Now I see it clear. You are truly the one from that legend. The sword must survive all times and ages, and I will die some die. But I can live now with the certainty that the sword will always be in good hands."  
"My Lord..." was Guinevere's voice, who placed a trembling hand on his shoulder. "Don't speak like that..."  
Arthur's eyes were brightening: "Like that?? I am saying the truth, my beloved Lady. I am not eternal..."  
"But people think you are..." Michael said in a soft voice.  
Chris sat down on the bed and looked at everyone, still trembling because of the pain he had felt and the fear, and confusion. He saw the sword still on the floor, and no one would pick it up.  
At that moment Arthur frowned: "What??"  
This gained Michael a warning look from Chris, but it was too late. "Well... People think that when you die, you will turn into a raven and will take care of your people until the end of days..."  
"A raven??" Gareth asked, stepping back a little so that he was on Amy's side again.  
Michael nodded, and Arthur smiled: "Oh, yes... That's part of the legend too... I had forgotten." Then he bent down to take the sword, and when he was knelt on one knee, he looked at Chris who was still on the bed, and said in a casual tone: "Long live the king..." Then he stood up.  
No one but the Elder-witch himself and Merlin, who smiled, noticed that Arthur had actually bowed before Chris, who immediately blushed.  
Lancelot lowered his face: "I am sorry... I just panicked..." And he put back his sword in his scabbard. Gawain and Gareth did the same thing, as Chris stood up.  
Nodding, the Elder-witch said: "I would have done the same thing..."  
Then, looking at Michael, he said: "I guess this is the time to go back." Actually he did not want to spend more time there endangering his own security and his friend's with the possibility that Gideon would discover and recognise them.  
At that moment he noticed Odin, who was still there, observing everything silently. What were they gonna do about him?? That would change everything in the future!!!  
But Arthur's voice interrupted his stream of thoughts: "Sir Chris... Does that mean that your task here is fulfilled?"  
Chris immediately understood what he meant, so he nodded smiling: "He won't come again to get the sword, I promise. You can trust me." Arthur nodded.  
Chris knew he should not mention Gideon's name in front of Odin... What was more: Odin should forget everything. Before it was too late. "But before I leave... I need to talk with Odin," he said therefore. And he would have time to tell his friend off about that later.  
Michael stared at the Elder who nodded, and then he looked at Gareth and Amy, and felt a terrible sadness in his heart. But he could not tell them anything, could he??  
The King smiled and said: "You can take your time... I will help Merlin to find a way to get you back home. You deserve it..."  
Gawain shrugged and grumbled: "And I guess I should be doing something else. And my little brother too." He turned away and left, followed by a hesitant Gareth who could not take his eyes off of Amy.  
But Michael took her hand for a minute: "Need to talk with you."  
Guinevere also said goodbye, and Lancelot followed her with his eyes. Then he himself said that he would help the king. Finally, Chris and Odin were left alone.  
"So... Who are you?" Odin asked, looking at him still suspicious.  
"I am Chris... I am an Elder from the future, but I guess you know all that already."  
Odin nodded very slightly, staring at him in silence. After a tense moment, he sighed: "I imagine you had a good reason to come, but you know the consequences of time travelling, young man..."  
"Precisely... because of that... Odin..." Chris said. "You can't remember anything in the future." The Elder nodded again, after a moment of silence. "I know... Don't worry, I'll take care of that. But tell me... Is that future good?"  
Chris smiled: "Yeah... as good as it can be."  
"Are we good friends??"  
"Oh, yeah..." was Chris's determined answer.  
"And I guess you can not explain to me how it comes that you're alive, right?"  
Chris slowly nodded: "I'm sorry... I wish I could."  
After those things were said, Odin smiled, and left by orbing, while saying: "I guess I'm going to like you..."

°°°°°°°°°°

"What do you want, Michael?? Tell me that I have to go back to the future, or...?"  
He shook his head energetically. "No, it's not that. You love him don't you??" he asked looking her in the eyes.  
The girl's eyes welled up in tears as she nodded, and Michael felt his heart sink: "Are you ready to stay??"  
"Can I??" she sobbed.  
Michael smiled: "It's Chris's decision, not mine... But I guess he'll let you, as long as you want to stay..."  
She smiled widely: "So you don't think this will spoil anything in the future??"  
Michael looked at her for a moment. "I don't know... But I want you to know something, Amy. Gareth... Ok, I have read the legend... Some things are going to happen. Sad things, to all these people we have met. Arthur, Lancelot, Gawain... and also Gaheris and Gareth."  
She stared at him with her eyes wide open: "What's gonna happen to them??"  
Michael sighed and thought that there was no use in hiding this from the girl. She could have read the legend herself: "Lancelot and Guinevere will be accused of betrayal, and condemned to die. Gareth and Gaheris will watch the queen, and Lancelot, in his attempt to save her... He'll kill them both."  
Amy gasped and felt like crying: "No..."  
But Michael grabbed her shoulders strongly: "Listen... Amy, you're a whitelighter. You can save him, and his brother, if you want. But you need to make sure that no one knows... That's the price. The legend must stay intact."  
She was so confused she did not know what to say, but at that moment, a voice interrupted them. It was Chris: "It's time for us to leave."  
"What about Amy?" Michael asked while his friend stepped closer. "Would it be a problem if she would stay?"  
Chris sighed looking at her. He had noticed what was going on between her and the young knight. And from what she had told them he knew no one would miss her in the future...  
When he now saw the hope in her eyes he couldn't bring himself to deny her that little bit of happiness. "No," he said therefore, "I don't think it'll be a problem... if you really want to stay, that is..."  
Amy smiled and cried at the same time, hugging him tightly. "Thanks," she said to his ear. And with a thankful look to Michael she orbed away to find her knight.

°°°°°°°°°°

A little while later, they were all again at the gates of the city. Chris looked back for the last time, to enjoy the beautiful sight of Camelot...  
After Amy was gone, the Elder-witch had orbed Michael and himself in front of the king, Merlin and Lancelot who were submerged in their search for a way to bring them home, and told them that he had an idea. It was kind of stupid, but he had a feeling...  
"Going back to the place where you entered this time??" Arthur had asked, narrowing his eyes.  
"It could work..." Merlin was pensive. Actually he had no better idea. He had never dealt with time travels, so maybe the young Elder would know better. After discussing it for a while, they decided that that was the best way to do things. They would try to find that place. Lancelot offered himself to guide them; maybe if they were able to describe the place properly...  
"But you tried to find the way before, and it did not work."  
"Well..." Chris said with a sigh. "It seems we were supposed to fulfil this... mission. Perhaps now that it is done..."  
"Just let's try," Lancelot answered. "I'll go with you."  
Short after that, Chris and Michael had met Gawain, and he had told them that he'd seen Amy walking over to Gareth a little earlier. She had jumped to his arms and told him something in the ear, and both of them had laughed and cried... while Gawain was observing them from the distance, smiling.  
And so, they were finally at the gates. Chris, Lancelot and Michael had already said goodbye to the sorcerer and Arthur, as well as Guinevere, and were now ready to leave. Amy saw them and immediately knew that the time had come. They were leaving... She hugged Michael and thanked him for his advice secretly.  
Then she looked Chris in the eyes, who smiled softly at her, and finally had to embrace him too with all her strength. Gareth observed from behind, trying not to be jealous. He knew he should not be like that. She was gonna stay!  
"Be very happy, ok??" he said to her ear. She nodded. "And be good," he added, chuckling. She hugged him again and nodded, between tears. Then they separated.  
Chris then shook hands with Gareth and told him: "Take good care of her..."  
"I will," the young knight replied smiling.  
Gawain winked at them and waved his hand: "Good journey!! Or whatever you say in these cases!" Then they left.  
And now... the three of them were riding towards the place where their adventure had started. Michael wasn't so sure. They hadn't much time to look around when they appeared. And anyway... this was England and they were supposed to go back to the US... How were they supposed to find the right place?  
But he just explained every detail to Lancelot, and he seemed to be very self-confident. He just guided them through the wood, at first in silence. An hour later, when they had been out of sight of the city, Chris and Michael changed back their clothes. Then they went on, as silent as before.  
After a while Lancelot told Chris how sorry he felt about his reaction, when he saw the sword flying towards his hands. But Chris had just burst into laughter and told him again that he understood, and that he actually would have been surprised and shocked if he had reacted differently. Michael was thoughtful, focused in the legend, in what he had told Amy and what was going to happen to all of them...  
Suddenly he saw something, and frowned: The camera!!! He looked at Chris and realised that he had also seen it. Should they tell Lancelot?? But he had already noticed and got off the horse. Chris ran to the camera, and Michael jumped off the horse too, since he had been at the back of the knight.  
"What is that?" Lancelot asked, frowning.  
"This is..." Michael started.  
But Chris interrupted him: "Where everything started." He sighed.  
Lancelot nodded, confused: "Well...there's something wrong here..."  
Chris and Michael looked at each other wordless. What were they gonna do now?? They looked around pensive, and then Chris walked a little bit, to see if he recognised the way. Mike shrugged looking at Lancelot and then he turned to call Chris: "You should not go very far away... You could end up in the Ancient Egypt this time, and without me to save your butt!!"  
Then he turned smiling at Lancelot, in order to explain his joke, but there was no one to talk to. His mouth opened widely. "Lancelot??" he asked. No horse, no man... just some little pieces of rubbish on the ground.  
"CHRIS!!!" he exclaimed, freaking out.  
Immediately, Chris rant to him, and frowned when he saw what was going on. Then he sighed: "I guess... This is the 21st century!" And he smiled between glad and sad, because he had not had time to say goodbye to Lancelot. He was sure that if he had lived in his time, they would have been great friends, just as Michael and him.  
"Let's go..." Chris said and, taking Michael's arm who just picked up his camera, he orbed away, not without taking a last look around, as well as his very confused friend did.  
Meanwhile, a lot of centuries before, and far away from there, Lancelot had seen how his friends simply disappeared in front of his eyes, becoming more and more transparent by moments. He called them, but they did not seem to hear. And finally, they were gone. He had stayed there for a while, and then smiled grabbing the medal that hung around his neck. "Good luck..." he murmured, and turning back, he jumped on the horse and went back to Camelot. He went back home...

°°°°°°°°°°

"CHRIS!!!! MIKE!!!!" All the people in the lounge cried at the same time. Suddenly, Chris saw himself wrapped up in a mess of arms, among which he could easily distinguish those of Bianca and Piper. And Michael could barely breathe between Angela's arms.  
"What has happened?"  
"What were you doing in the Middle Ages??"  
"In 999??"  
"How did you go there??"  
"What did you do?"  
Questions and questions struck his mind, but he could not answer. He had no chance. He was surprised to see so many people around... Even Kyle was there!!! When he saw Odin, he felt his heart beat faster but the elder seemed to have kept his word, since he did not seem to remember anything.  
"What did you have to do there which was so important man???" asked another voice by his side.  
"Well..."  
Suddenly a strong thud made them all startle. Chris turned around surprised, as well as the others, just to find the stone with the sword right in the middle of the hallway.  
"Who orbed this here?" Phoebe asked, looking at Paige and Leo accusingly.  
Piper was paler: "I thought we had made it clear that this thing must be hidden... This is not funny." The others looked at the sword amazed, and Kyle grabbed Paige's hand with strength. What did that mean? Excalibur?? Had she told him about it? Because he did not remember that part. How many more surprises awaited him??  
Cole and Leo stared at Chris, who had started to tremble a little, hesitantly. He looked at Michael who was hugging Angela, and smiled at him. He winked, reassuringly. "If you want answers... That's the answer," he said enigmatically turning to the others.  
Chris sighed, and went to the sword. He was not sure at all... But he felt it. He could feel the power calling him. Why had it suddenly appeared? 'Because it would appear when the right time came.' And it was the right time. Chris did not even think about it. He just took the sword, and pulled it out off the stone with an amazing easiness. Everyone held back exclamations, surprised, and Chris smiled, embarrassed.  
"What... what does that mean??" Leo and Phoebe asked confused.  
"Oh, my..." Cole said, unbelieving. Kyle just stared at the sword. That could not be true... Excalibur, in front of him!!  
"Well, you know... this is a really long story..." But then Chris frowned, remembering something very important. "How long have we been away?" he asked, while putting back the sword again, slowly.  
Paige was the first who was able to answer: "Only a couple of hours... it isn't even midnight." Chris sighed: "Ok... I need to do something, I'll be right back." And he orbed away.  
"CHRIS!!!!" Piper exclaimed, angrily. "YOU LITTLE BRAT HAD ME WORRIED ALL THIS TIME AND NOW LEAVE!!! You have to give me many explanations, young man!!!!!!" she called after him, followed by the laughter of everyone.

°°°°°°°°°°

Tom was about to leave. They were all in the small hallway of Steve's apartment, hugging for goodbye when Chris appeared in the middle of bluish orbing lights.  
"CHRIS!" Nicki exclaimed and hugged him. "They told us you where missing."  
The Elder-witch smiled: "Yeah... I have made a short trip to the Middle Age..." When he saw the confused looks of his friends he shrugged: "Long story..."  
Then he turned to Steve: "Elenia didn't come?" His friend shook his head sadly. "Well... I'm truly sorry. I wish I could have convinced them to let her go... If I wouldn't have been stucked in that time, I..." he said, trying to look sad. But actually he had already thought that she wouldn't be able to come down and therefore he had a plan B. "Well... if you have a moment. I have a gift for you, maybe that will cheer you up a little."  
"A gift?" Steve said surprised. "For me?"  
"Of course... we're friends, right?"  
Steve smiled: "Of course... what is it?"  
Chris grinned and hold out his hand: "Come and find it out on your own."  
The young man frowned smiling, wondering what his friend could have for him. "I'll be right back," he said to Tom and Nicki who were nodding.  
"Ehh..." Chris said to the others, "you shouldn't wait for him." And when Steve took his hand the Elder-witch orbed with him away, without any other word.  
Tom turned to Nicki: "Have you seen his weird grin... He isn't doing what I think, is he?"  
The woman smiled: "I don't know... but if he's doing that, than Steve will freak out!"

°°°°°°°°°°

When they materialised Steve looked around frowning. Everything around him was white... They seemed to be at an open place. Around that area were a few buildings which were looking kind of old, decorated with columns and some weird figures. "Where are we?" he asked.  
Chris, who had stared at some very dry bottled plants, turned around to him and smiled. "Where you should have been long before," he said, took his friend's hand and pulled him with him.  
He led Steve into one of those buildings, down a long white hallway. On their way some other people crossed their way, all dressed in a white and golden rope, eyeing them suspicious. Steve eyes and mouth were wide open. 'Could that be?' he thought. And turning to Chris he asked: "This isn't the Elder-world... is it?"  
"It is," Chris answered and led him to the huge conference room, where he had sensed the Elder he was looking for. He opened the huge golden door and entered, followed by his friend.  
All the other Elders turned around, surprised that Chris was back, and when they saw Steve they were shocked. "What is HE doing here!?!" Jeremiah exclaimed.  
But at that moment Steve had spotted his mom, who went closer to him smiling.  
"Happy birthday," Chris whispered to him and pushed him a little forward. Steve turned to his friend in disbelieve. But when Chris nodded, he went over to her, shyly, and then hugged her tightly.  
"Hey son," Elenia said and kissed his forehead, "I'm so happy that you're here. I've missed you so much..." She was overwhelmed by what Chris had done for her... for him! She had thought she wouldn't see him today. She had never thought that Chris could bring him up there... never.  
"Missed you, too," Steve sobbed unable to hold back his tears. He couldn't believe that she was right in front of him. He had missed her so much... And the fact that he himself was in this place didn't sink in completely either. He was just overwhelmed by the situation.  
Meanwhile Chris turned to Jeremiah, grinning satisfied: "Now everything is alright..."  
"I don't think so..." the other Elder said angry, "how could you bring him..."  
"Well... I thought I told you to take care of my bottled plants... And now I see them, down on the place, all dry and nearly dead... You have to give them some water... and love of course... lot's of love..." Chris interrupted him smiling, not paying any attention to the other one's complaining.  
The other Elders in the room still looked shocked at the couple and angry at the Elder-witch. Chris had broken nearly every rule... But now that it was done...? They thought about weather that incident was worth any arguments or not, and they felt that it was not... Even Jeremiah noticed that it was a good thing that had happened this moment... But still... "Mortal human beings aren't allowed to come up here..."  
"Whatever... and anyway.. he IS half-Elder... don't forget that." Chris was about to leave again. He knew that he had some explanations to give at home. He cleared his throat and when Steve turned to him he said: "I have to leave now... I guess your mother can bring you back later."  
His friend nodded and before Chris left he said: "Thanks... thank you so much for this."  
"Hey, this is your place as much as it is mine," the Elder-witch answered and then orbed back to the manor.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris orbed back to the hallway. On his way to his family, he passed by the sword still placed in the stone, where he had left it. Smiling he touched the handle, almost caressing it. Then he entered the living room.  
But before anyone of his family could say something, Odin stepped forward and took a deep bow. "My king," he said, "I'm glad you've managed to come back to this time. I knew you two would make it..."  
Chris frowned: "You remember? But you said you would..."  
"I did," the Elder interrupted his friend before the confused looks of the others. "I let a witch cast a spell on me, actually it had been one of your ancestors. But it was only meant to last till the day you take the sword again, so when you took it a few minutes ago, I began to remember.  
Chris smiled nodding. "It's good that you know," he said and hugged Odin.  
At that moment Wyatt woke up. Still sleepy he opened his eyes and looked at Chris. He needed a moment to realise that he wasn't dreaming. Then he jumped up and ran over to his brother. Hugging his leg, he mumbled: "Never leave me alone again... I don't like to be alone."  
Chris looked confused at his parents.  
"He was freaking out, when he couldn't feel you anymore," Leo explained.  
Piper nodded: "Me, too."  
Chris sighed: "I'm sorry." Then he picked his brother up and hold him close, feeling his small arms around his neck. Smiling he went over to the sofa, sat down next to his wife and gave her a soft kiss. Oh... how he had missed that. Then he caressed the cheek of his little girl, who was sleeping peacefully in Bianca's arms now, before he turned to the questioning looks of his family. "So..." he said, "what do you want to hear?"  
"Why have you just taken the sword out of the stone," Leo asked, "we thought that Wyatt would be it's owner."  
Chris nodded: "Me too... believe me, me too."  
"But he isn't..." Paige said while Kyle hugged her close. He was still a little confused by the fact that Excalibur was real... and even more since he knew Chris was the new king Arthur. But he kept silent.  
Chris nodded again at his aunt's comment. "That's what the Dame of the Lake said."  
Then Michael tried to explain: "As far as I understand it, Chris is supposed to have it, and then Christopher, right?" Chris nodded again, not really knowing what to say. He was confused and overwhelmed on his own. But when he held the sword - his sword - he knew it was right.  
"I can't believe that you're the one to fulfil the legend of the trees," Silas said.  
"Well," Odin interrupted them, imagining that Chris was still as confused as he had been when they met over thousand years ago, "I guess we all should go to sleep now... Tomorrow is still early enough to talk about that."  
Chris sighed and then nodded. Same as Michael who hugged his wife closely, just wishing to be alone with her and tell her what he had find out about the medal she was wearing, and all the other stuff he had seen... and then fall asleep in her arms.  
"Well my lord" Bianca said smiling, "I guess your lady could need a little bit of sleep, too..."  
He smiled and kissed her again, lovingly. "Really?" he asked grinning, making her chuckle.  
But before they would leave, Phoebe had a last question: "But where did you go so quickly as soon as you were back?"  
Chris shrugged: "Oh... I just gave Steve his birthday present..."  
"But the box is still on the sidebord," Paige remarked.  
Now the Elder-witch chuckled: "Well I thought he would prefer an one-way-orb up there to his mom."  
Leo, Odin and Silas, looked at him shocked: "WHAT?"

°°°°°°°°°°

_A few weeks later...  
_"So this is the place?" Bianca was looking around, a little bit unsure, and felt a thrill due to the cold breeze that blew in the plain where they were standing.  
In front of them, and surrounded by a thin wire, there was a huge circle of stones, menhirs, most of them placed vertically and some horizontally, supported by those that worked as legs for them. It was dark, almost night, and a weird feeling invaded the young woman as she looked at those ancient stones: The Stonehenge.  
Chris nodded, pensive, looking at the sky: "Yeah, Mike told me this is the place."  
Bianca sighed, holding his arm and pressing herself against his body to protect herself from the chill that made her shiver. "You don't really believe it, do you??"  
Chris kept his eyes fixed on the stones, or farther away, on the cloudy sky over them. "This is a sacred place, Bianca... Magical. And magic is real, so yes, I believe it."  
"But it's just a legend, Chris... Nothing else," she sighed again. It was colder every minute, and the truth was that she was afraid of what could happen, because of the events they had to face the last time they went to a magical place. She did not want to imagine Chris travelling again in time, to the Bronze Age, or something like that.  
"Well, now I know that legends can be true..." he said, his eyes brightening strangely.  
Suddenly they heard something and he frowned: "Did you hear that?" Bianca shook her head, that leant on his shoulder.  
But then there it was again. It was a squawk. "Look, there!!" Chris said, pointing at a bird with his finger.  
Bianca raised her eyes to the raven flying in the sky, and sighed again. A raven.. "But this does not mean that..."  
"A magical place, isn't it?" A voice behind them made them startle and turn back immediately.  
When he saw the person standing there, Chris let his mouth drop widely open. The man in front of them was smiling kindly, that well-known friendly look always in his eyes, but he was wearing jeans and a casual t-shirt, and his hands were inside his pockets. And his accent was quite weird: "This time of the day is the best to come. When all the tourists have left... you can really feel the magic, can't you??"  
Chris kept silent, still unbelieving, and Bianca, noticing his weird attitude, smiled a bit shocked and distrusting and nodded: "Yeah... This is a beautiful place."  
The young man smiled: "It's more than that..." And he raised his eyes to the sky, to look at the raven that flew around them, a moment that Bianca used to elbow Chris and bring him back to reality.  
He blinked slightly and swallowed, but then tried to sound normal. He stretched his arm to the man in front of them and asked: "I am not sure if you mentioned your name..."  
The stranger chuckled and shook his hand warmly: "I don't think you did either."  
Chris blushed and lowered his eyes: "I'm so sorry... My name is Chris and this is my wife, Bianca." She smiled and shook his hand too.  
He nodded and said: "My name's Ancel. Nice to meet you." After these words, they kept looking at each other in silent. Chris could not believe his eyes, and Bianca could not believe his attitude. That man... And the name was too close. Shorter but... Was it just coincidence?  
"Oh, it's a foreign name, and not very common. I am French, from the region of Languedoc." Chris raised and eyebrow. "Oh..." he muttered.  
Bianca smiled as kindly as she could: "And what does a French tourist lost at this time of the day in the Stonehenge??"  
He shrugged and smiled back: "I was going to ask exactly the same thing about two Americans lost in the Stonehenge, mademoiselle."  
This time she blushed, but Chris was too curious: "Have you been here for a long time?" he asked, looking at his eyes.  
He nodded: "Actually I am not a tourist... I've been living abroad since I was a child. I have family here; and I always loved this place, you know... It's so magical. It always fascinated me in some way." He saw how Chris was looking at him, and went on: "But if you're wondering about my accent... Well, I keep it because I was also living in Spain for a long time... In the island of Lanzarote."  
Bianca nodded: "The Canary Islands."  
And Ancel smiled. "Precisely. Lanzarote... Lancelot in English," he added, and then he winked.  
Chris felt his heart beating, He was going to tell him something, when another voice interrupted them: "Ancel!! It's going to be late!!"  
"Coming!!!" he answered. Then he turned to the couple and shook their hands again: "Sorry, my girlfriend is kind of impatient." He winked again: "Nice to meet you, chaps. I hope to see you again, if you are going to be around..."  
But Bianca shook her head: "We're leaving tomorrow."  
Ancel shrugged and sighed: "Well, you know how destiny works, you never know..."  
"Ancel!!!!"  
"Coming!!!" he repeated: "Ok, guys... as you see... I need to go." And after that, he ran to his girlfriend, who was waiting in a car with the lights on, farther away in the road.  
Chris kept looking at him shocked, until finally Bianca pulled his sleeve. "WHAT??" he asked, startled.  
"That's my question...What? What the hell happened with that guy, Chris? I think it's better to go home, NOW," she said, worried.  
But Chris shook his head and grinned: "It's ok, it's ok, it's just... I never expected to see him... here... I mean, in this time."  
"He??"  
"Lancelot."  
Bianca opened her eyes widely. So it was that...  
But Chris interrupted her thoughts again: "Don't worry, it's not him, it's just... weird. He's exactly like him, and all those coincidences, the place where he comes from and the island... Just weird. And in this place!"  
Bianca smiled: "Maybe they are related, who knows..." Then she kissed him on the cheek: "But I guess Michael was wrong about Arthur, though... I mean, the raven."  
Chris chuckled: "Yeah... I guess... That's only a legend." And after saying that, he looked at the raven that was still squawking and flying, and then he orbed back home. It was too cold there... And now he really wanted to talk with Michael.  
Once they had disappeared, Ancel turned to look at the Stonehenge, from the car, and after kissing his girlfriend. He smiled and raised his arm. The raven came straight to him and alighted on his forearm, squawking once again, while the full moon brightened with all its strength.

* * *

_(Chapter 10 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén) _

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**So that's the end of Part Ten of our series. I hope you all liked and enjoyed it! "A Charmed Story - Part Eleven" is already on it's way. The first chapter will be up on Friday, January 18th... Thanks to everyone for the support. And... stay tuned!** _

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